»*    ^ 


%^....^eXSî^KeJ 


^Hjft 


i    .    X 


vz 


':r:^ 


THE   BOOT 

PRINTERS, 
ii^LUSTRMORt 

AND 

BINIOF-RR 


'"'   i'"rilÉ'"r  lYI'-^""----" 


^ 


Fac-similé  of  the  t\vcnt3--eighth  page  of  the  Biblia  Paiipautii,  representing,  with  the  text  trom 
the  Old  Testament,  David  prevailing  over  Goliath,  and  Christ  delivering  the  souls  of  the 
patriarchs  and  prophets  from  limbo.  [Frontispiece. 


The  BOOK: 


ipxxwUxef   ^^^uBivatoxe^   an^   (§inUxQf 


GUTENBERG.  TO    THE   PRESENT  TIME. 


BY 

HENRI      BOUCHOT, 

Of  the  National  Library^  Pa-tts. 


WITH    A   TREATISE    ON    THE 


act   of    Collecting   anu    àDcacnbi'no;    Carlj^    pcintcti    Sooks, 


l.ATIN-ENGLISII    AND    ENGLISH-LATIN    TOPOGRAPHICAL     INDEX     OF     TIIIC 
EARLIEST    PRINTING    PLACES. 


Edited    by   H.    GREVEL. 


CONTAINING      ONE     HUNDRED     AND     SEVENTY-TWO     FACSIMILES 

OF   EARLY  TYPOGRAPHY.   BOOK-ILLUSTRATIONS,  PRINTERS'   MARKS,   BINDINGS,  NUMEROUS  BORDERS, 
INITIALS,   HEAD    AND   TAIL    PIECES,    AND    A    FRONTISPIECE. 


NEW    YORK  : 

SCRIBNER    AND     WELFORD. 

i8go. 


PREFACE 


HE  first  edition  of  M.  Henri  Bouchot's  fascinat- 
ing volume,  Le  Livre,  translated  and  enlarged 
by  Mr.  E.  C.  Bigmore,  under  the  title  of 
??  The  Printed  Book,  having  become  exhausted, 
I  have  availed  myself  of  the  opportunity  to  subject  the  work 
to  a  careful  revision. 

The  extensive  additions,  which  include  sixty-five  new 
illustrations,  and  the  entirely  fresh  matters  treated  of  in  this 
edition,  make  it  practically  a  new  work,  while  under  the 
process  it  has  grown   to   nearly  double   its   original   size. 

Considering  the  wide  range  of  the  subject,  this  work  can 
claim  to  be  no  more  than  a  summary  and  condensed  survey 
of  the  history  of  The  Book,  and  of  the  arts  involved  in  its 
production.  At  the  same  time,  it  may  be  found  to  prove  a 
useful  compendium  of  the  thousands  of  unknown  and  forgotten 
essays  that  have  been  published  on  the  history  of  The  Book, 
and  which  M.  Bouchot  has  so  skilfully  contrived  to  condense 
into  a  single   volume. 

The  technical  aspect  of  the  subject  has  not  been  Ibrgotteh 
either,     and    is    dealt    with    in    separate    chapters,    which    have 


vi  PREFACE. 

had  the  advantage  of  being  revised  by  specialists  in  the 
several  subjects.  This  has  been  particularly  the  case  with  the 
chapters  on  Types  and  on  Binding,  which  have  received  a 
careful  treatment  ;  although,  considering  the  importance  of  each 
subject,  a  whole  volume  might  hardly  have  been  sufficient  to 
treat  these  topics  exhaustively.  A  special  chapter,  based  on 
a  treatise  by  M.  A.  Einsle,  of  Vienna,  has  also  been  added, 
on  the  art  of  collecting  and  describing  early  printed  books. 
This  will  doubtless  be  welcomed  by  many  students  who 
have  no  access  to  such  recondite  information.  For  the  same 
reason  the  bibliographer  will  be  glad  to  have  the  appended 
Topographical  Index,  by  which  he  will  be  enabled  at  once 
to  discover  the  English  names  of  the  towns  on  the  early 
Latin    titles. 

H.   G. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

14      .      .TO    1462. 

I 

Origin  of  the  Book — Engravers  in  relief — The  St.  Christopher  of  1423 — Origin  of  the 
Xylographs — The  Xylographs,  Donatus  and  Speculum — Tlie  Laurent  Coster 
legend — From  block  books  to  movable  characters — John  Gensdeisch,  called 
Gutenberg — The  Strasburg  trial — Gutenberg  at  JNIayence — Fust  and  Schoeffer — 
The  letters  of  indulgence — The  Bible — The  Catholicou — The  Mayence  Bible — 
Causes  of  the  dispersion  of  the  first  Mayence  printers — General  considerations     . 


CHAPTER  II. 

1462    TO    15OQ. 

The  Book  and  the  printers  of  the  second  generation — The  German  workmen  dispersed 
through  Europe — Caxton  and  the  introduction  of  printing  into  England — Nicholas 
Jensen  and  his  supposed  mission  to  Mayence — The  first  printing  in  Paris  ;  William 
Fichet  and  John  Heinlein — The  first  French  printers  ;  their  installation  at  the 
Sorbonne  and  their  publications — The  movement  in  France — The  illustration  of 
the  Book  commenced  in  Italy — The  Book  in  Italy  ;  engraving  in  relief  and  metal 
plates — The  Book  in  Germany  :  Cologne,  Nuremberg,  Basle — The  Book  in  tiie 
Low  Countries — French  schools  of  ornament  of  the  Book  ;  Books  of  Hours  ; 
booksellers  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — Literary  taste  in  titles  in  France 
at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — Printers'  and  booksellers'  marks — The 
appearance  of  the  portrait  in  the  Book 42 


CHAPTER   in. 

1500    TO    1600. 

French  epics  and  the  Renaissance — Venice  and  Aldus  Manutius — Italian  illustrators 
— The   Germans  :    Thcuerdanch,   Schaufelein — The   Book   in   other  countries — 


COXTE.VTS. 

PAGE 

French  books  at  the  beginning  of  the  centurj-,  before  the  accession  of  Francis  I. 
— English  printers  and  their  work — Engraved  plates  in  English  books — Geoffroy 
Tory  and  his  works — Francis  I.  and  the  Book — Robert  Estienne — Lyons  a  centre 
of  bookselling:  Holbein's  Dances  of  Death — School  of  Basle — Alciati's  emblems 
and  the  illustrated  books  of  the  middle  of  the  century — The  school  of  Fontainebleau 
and  its  influence — Solomon  Bernard — Cornells  de  la  Haye  and  the  Promptuaire 
— Jean  Cousin — Copperplate  engraving  and  metal  plates — Woériot — The  portrait 
in  the  book  of  the  sixteenth  century — How  a  book  was  illustrated  on  wood  at  the 
end  of  the  centurj- — Influence  of  Plantin  on  the  Book  ;  his  school  of  engravers — 
General  considerations — Progress  in  England — Coverdale's  Bible  ....   107 


CH.A.PTER   IV. 

1600    TO    1700. 

Tendencies  of  the  regency  of  Marie  de  Medici — Thomas  de  Leu  and  Leonard  Gaultier 
— J.  Picart  and  Claude  Mellan — Lyons  and  J.  de  Fornazeris — The  Book  at  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  Germany,  Italy,  England,  and  Holland — • 
Crispin  Pass  in  France — The  Elzevirs  and  Enschedé  and  their  work  in  Holland — 
Sebastian  Cramoisy  and  the  Imprimerie  Royale — Illustration  under  Callot,  Delia 
Bella,  and  Abraham  Bosse — The  publishers  and  the  Hotel  de  Rambouillet — The 
reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  Antoine  Vitré  syndic  at  his  accession — His  works  and 
mortifications  ;  the  Polyglot  Bible  of  Le  Jay — Art  and  illustrators  of  the  grand 
century — Sébastien  Leclerc,  Lepautre,  and  Chauveau — Leclerc  preparing  the 
illustration  and  decoration  of  the  Book  for  the  eighteenth  century     .         .         .   161 


CHAPTER   V. 

The  Book  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

The  Regency — Publishers  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century — Illustrators  in 
France  ;  Gillot — The  school  of  Watteau  and  Boucher — Cars — The  younger 
Cochin  ;  his  principal  works  in  vignettes — French  art  in  England  ;  Gravelot — 
Eisen — Choffard — The  Baisers  of  Dorat  ;  the  Contes  of  Lafontaine — The  pub- 
lisher Cazin  and  the  special  literature  of  the  eighteenth  century — The  younger 
Moreau  and  his  illustrations — The  Revolution — The  school  of  David — Duplessi- 
Bertaux  —  The  Book  in  Germany;  Chodowiecki  —  In  England;  Boydell  and 
French  artists — Caslon  and  Baskerville — English  books  with  illustrations — Wood 
engraving  in  the  eighteenth  century  ;  the  Papillons — Printing  offices  in  the 
eighteenth  century  194 


Contents.  ix 

CHAPTER   VI. 

The  Book  in  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

PAGE 

The  Didots  and  their  improvements — Tlie  loHo  Racine — The  school  of  Didot — Fine 
pubhcations  in  England  and  Germany — Literature  and  art  of  the  Restoration- 
Romanticism — -Wood  engraving — Bewick's  pupils,  Clennell,  etc. — The  illustrators 
of  romances — The  generation  of  1840 — The  Book  in  our  days  in  Europe  and 
America    ...............  330 

Type,  Presses,  and  P.-\per 250 

Bookbinding. 

Early  bindings  ;  superiority  of  English  work — Panel-stamps  invented  in  the  Low 
Countries — The  binding  of  the  first  printed  books — French  binding  in  the  time 
of  Louis  Xn. — Influence  of  German  and  Netherlandish  binders  on  the  art  in  other 
countries — Italian  bindings — Aldus — Maioli — Grolier — Francis  I. — Henry  II.  and 
Diana  of  Poitiers — Catherine  de  Medici — Henry  III. — The  Eves — The  "  fanfares" 
— Louis  XIII. — Le  Gascon — Florimond  Badier — Louis  XIV, —  Morocco  leathers — 
Cramoisy — The  bindings  of  the  time  of  Louis  XIV. — The  Regency — Pasdeloup — 
The  Deromes — Dubuisson — Thouvenin — Lesné — The  nineteenth  century — English 
binders — Roger  Payne — Francis  Bedford — Blocking        ......  262 

Libraries 307 

The  Art  of  Describing  and  Cataloguing  Incunabula 322 

The  Method  of  Collecting  Them 352 

Latin-English  and  English-Latin  ToroGEArnicAL  Index 3^7 

General  Index       375 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


i'AGK 

1.  The  Fool;  Playing  Card  of  Taroc  (fifteenth  century)    .......  3 

2.  St.  Christopher  (1423) 4 

3.  X}-lographic  Plate,  cut  in  Flanders  (  1440),  representing  Jesus  after  the  flagellation     .  5 

4.  Xj-lographic  Plate,  representing  St.  John.      C<i.  1440.      With  a  text  ot  the  command- 

ments of  the  Church         ............  6 

5.  Part  of  a  Douatiis  taken  from  a  xylograph,  the  original  of  which  is  preserved  in  the 

Bibliothèque  Nationale    ............  7 

6.  Fac-similé  of  page  5  of  the  first  edition  of  the  y^;j  .l/o)-/ci/rfï'  .         .         .         .         .11 

7.  Xylographie  figure  from  the  Ars  Moncndi,  copied  in  reverse  in  the  Ar/  au  Moiifr       .  12 
S.     Figure  of  the  school  of  Martin  Schongauer,  taken  from  the  Ratioimriiim  Evaiigelistaniiii 

of  1505,  and  copied  from  the  corresponding  plate  of  the  .(4rs  3/ivj/o»m/<//       .         .  13 

9.     Portrait  of  Gutenberg,  from  an  engraving  of  the  si.xteenth  century       .         .         .         •  '5 

10.  Letters  of  indulgence,  from  the  so-called  edition  of  thirty-one  lines,  printed  at  Mayence 

in  the  course  of  1454        .........         ...  21 

11.  Fragment  of  the  Gutenberg  Bible,  printed  in  two  columns.      Beginning  of  the  te.xt  in 

the  second  column  ;  original  size    ..........  23 

12.  Fac-simile  of  the  Psalter,  1459        ...........  31 

13.  Colophon  of  the  Catholicon,  supposed  to  have  been  printed  by  Gutenberg  in  1460        .  2i2i 

14.  Colophon  of  the  Bible  printed  in  1462  by  Fust  and  Schoefier,  which  is  the  first  dated 

Bible 35 

15.  Imprint  of  Arnold  Ther  Hoernen,  printer,  of  Majencc  .......  45 

16.  MarkofColard  Mansion         ............  46 

17.  Specimen  of  Caxton's  t}-pe,  from  the  Canterbury  Tales,  1476          .....  46 
iS.     Woodcut  from  Caxton's  (?dr;;;c  rt;/^  P/rtV'c  0/ //if  C//<'5Sf  .         ......  47 

19.  The  Knight,  a  woodcut  from  Caxton's  (?a;i/<^  «//(/ P/rt\'(' q/"///t' C//('55C     ....  48 

20.  Music,  a  woodcut  from  Caxton's  3/i>roH>- o/rtc  Jfoc/rf           ......  49 

21.  William  Caxton,  from  Rev.  J.  Lewis's  Life    .........  50 

22.  Fyshing  with  an  Angle 51 

23.  Mark  of  Wynkyn  de  Worde 52 

24.  Mark  of  Richard  Pynson         ............  53 

25.  Imprint  of  Nicholas  Jenson  to  a  y;(s^/«;(7H,  printed  in  1470  at  Venice    .          ■          .          .  55 

26.  Z.f«f»s  of  Gasparin  of  Bergamo.     First  page  of  the  first  book  printed  at  Paris,  in  1470  58 

27.  Colophon  in  distichs  in  the  Letters  of  Gasparin  of  Bergamo,  first  book  printed  at  Paris, 

at  the  office  of  the  Sorbonne   ...........  59 


xii  List  of  Illustrations. 

I'AGE 

28.  jÇAf/o);7i/i?  of  Fichet,  printed  at  Paris  in  147 1 60 

29.  Mark  of  Guerbin,  printer  at  Geneva,  14S2 63 

30.  Wood  engraving  in  Matteo  Pasti,  for  Valturius'  Dc  Re  Militari  (Verona  :  1472)  .         .  64 

31.  Title-page  of  the  Crtto/n'»™,  first  ornamental  title  known 66 

32.  Engraving  on  metal  by  Baccio  Baldini  for  £/ iWo/i/f  Srt«/o  rf»£)/o,  in  1477    ...  68 

33.  Metal  engraving  by  Baccio  Baldini  from  the  Z)«»/c  of  14S I 6g 

34.  Plate  from  the  i/Vj*"<^''oto'«fff/!<'n  Po/'^/'"'/,  printed  by  Aldus  Manutius,  in  1499    .         .  71 

35.  The  planet  Mercury  and  the  City  of  Rome,  engraving  from  the  Diviim  Couicdia  (Venice, 

149') 72 

36.  Plate  from  Bonino  de  Bonini's  Dante,  at  Brescia,  in  14S7      ......  73 

37.  The   creation    of  woman,    plate    from    the    Schat:bcliaitcr,    engraved    after    Michael 

Wohlgemuth 74 

38.  The  daughter  of  Jephthah,  plate  taken  from  the  Sclmtzbclmller,  engraved  after  Michael 

Wohlgemuth 76 

39.  Title  of  the  A'ioYwiicjjo' C/»'o<//(/c,  printed  by  A.  Koberger,  1493.      Fol.          ...  77 

40.  Title  of  the  ,4/iocnA^sf,  by  Albert  Durer,  printed  in  149S 78 

41.  Title  of  Sebastian  Brandt's  Ship  of  Fools,  printed  in  1497  at  Basle,  by  Bergman  de  Olpe  79 

42.  The  Bibliomaniac.     Engraving  from  the  S/»)»  o/Foo/s 80 

43.  A  medical  man  of  the  fifteenth  century,  from  La  Mer  des  Histoires       ....  84 

44.  Mark  of  Philip  Pigouchet,  French  printer  and  wood  engraver  of  the  fifteenth  century  85 

45.  Mark  of  Jean  Dupré,  printer  at  Lyons  ..........  86 

46.  Mark  of  Simon  Vostre,  printer  at  Paris,  1501         ........  87 

47-49.     Ornaments  of  Simon  Vostre      ...........  87 

50.  Border  in  four  separate  blocks  in  the  Heures  ii  I'Usaigc  ite  Rome,  by  Pigouchet,  for 

Simon  Vostre,  in  148S 88 

51.  Plate   copied   from   Schongauer's    Carrying  of  the  Cross,   taken  from  the  Heures  of 

Simon  Vostre  ..............  89 

52.  The  Death  of  the  Virgin,  plate  taken  from  the  Heures  of  Simon  Vostre,  printed  in 

14S8 90 

53.  ^lark  of  Antoine  Vérard,  printer  at  Paris,  1498     ........  91 

54.  Border  of  the  Grandes  Heures  of  Antony  Vérard 93 

55-     Plate  from  the  Tristan  published  by  Antoine  Vérard     .......  94 

56.     Page  of  the  Grandes  Heures  of  Antoine  Vérard  :  Paris,  fifteenth  century      ...  95 

57-     Typographical  mark  of  Thielman  Kerver       .........  97 

58.  Plate  from  z  Book  of  Hours  of  Simon  Vostre,  representing  the  Massacre  of  the  Innocents  98 

59.  Danee  of  Death,  said  to  be  by  Vérard.     The  Pope  and  the  Emperor     ....  99 

60.  i3a»««  o/i>«n;'/;  of  Guyot  Marchant  in  i486.     The  Pope  and  the  Emperor     .  .         .101 

61.  Mark  of  Guy  Marchant,  printer  at  Paris,  14S5        ........  102 

62.  Frontispiece  to  Terence,  published  by  Treschel  at  Lj'ons  in  1493.     The  author  writing 

his  book .         , 104 

63.  Mark  of  Treschel,  printer  at  Lyons,  1489 105 

64.  The  anchor  and  dolphin,  mark  of  Aldus  Manutius,  after  the  original  in  the   Terse 

Rime  o(  1^20  ..............  I09 

65.  Aldus  Manutius      .         .         .  .  .         .  .  .  .  .  .         .         .  .Ill 

66.  Mark  of  Lucantonio  Giunta,  of  Venice   .         .         .  '      .         .         .         .         .         .         .112 

67.  Title  of  the  Theuerdanck 114 


LfST   OF   lUMSTRAT/OA'S. 


r.     Qiiee 


eng 


6S.  Plate  taken  from  the  Tliciieyrlaitck,  representing  Maximilian  and  Mary  of  Burgundy    . 

69.  Portrait  of  Queen  Elizabeth  from  the  Book  of  Chiislinii  Piaicrs,  printed  by  John  Day, 

15-S 

70.  Woodcut  from  Coverdale's  Bible,  1535.     Cain  killing  Abel   . 

71.  Woodcut  by  Hans  Holbein  from  Cranmer's  Catec/iisiii,  154S 

72.  Mark  of  Philippe  le  Noir,  printer  at  Paris,  1536 

73.  Vignette  taken  from  the  ///iislinti'oiis  lie  la  Gaule  el  SingtiUvlle:  de   Tro_ 

Anne  of  Brittany  as  Juno 

74.  Mark  of  François  Juste,  printer  at  Lyons,  1526      ..... 

75.  Mark  of  Guillaume  Eustace,  151",  binder  and  bookseller  at  Paris 

76.  Title  of  the  Enlre'c  tl' Ele'oiiore  d'Aidiiche  à  Paiia,  by  Guillaume  Bochetel 

77.  Mark  of  Geofi'roy  Tory,  printer  at  Paris,  1529        ..... 

78.  Full  page  of  the  Heures  of  Simon  de  Colines,  by  Tory  .... 

79.  Hemes  of  Geoffroy  Tory.     The  Circumcision 

80.  Mark  of  Simon  de  Colines,  printer  at  Paris,  1527  ..... 

81.  Hemes  of  Simon  de  Colines,  with  the  mark  of  the  Cross  of  Lorraine    . 

82.  Emblematical  letter  Y.  taken  from  the  ChniiifiJIemy  of  Geofi'roy  Tory  . 

83.  Macault  reading  to  Francis  \.  his  translation   of  Diodorus  Siculus.     Wood 

attributed  to  Tory   .......... 

84.  Robert  Estienne,  after  the  engraving  in  the  Chro)iologie  Collée 

85.  Mark  of  Robert  Estienne,  printer  at  Paris,  1541     . 

86.  Mark  of  François  Estienne,  printer  at  Paris,  153S  .         .... 

87.  Printing  office  of  Josse  Badius  of  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century 

88.  Portrait  of  Nicholas  Bourbon.    Wood  engraving  of  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth 

century    ..........■■■ 

89.  King  and  Death.     Vignette  from  the  Danee  of  Death  by  Holbein  . 

90.  Page  of  the  jl/c/«)no)-/'/ioscs  of  Ovid,  by  Petit  Bernard.     Edition  of  1564 

91.  Portraits  of  Madeleine,  Queen  of  Scotland,  and  of  Marguerite,  Duchess  of  Savoy 

the  originals  of  Cornelius  of  Lyons  ........ 

92.  Portraits  of  Francis,  Dauphin,  and  of  Charles,  Duke  of  Angoulême,  after  the  ori 

of  Cornelius  of  Lyons      .......... 

93.  Captain  of  foot,  from  the  Entree  de  Henri  //.  a  Lyon,  1549    •  -         •  • 

94.  Title  of  Jean  Cousin's  Livre  de  Portraiture,  published  in  1593  by  Le  Clerc   . 

95.  Engraving  by  P.  Woeriot  for  Georgette  de  Montenay's  Emblèmes 

96.  Portrait  of  Christopher  Plantin,  printer  of  Antwerp 

97.  Plantin's  Mark 

98.  Frontispiece  of  a  book  from  Plantin's  printing  office 

99.  Mark  of  Etienne  Dolet,  printer  at  Lyons,  1542 
100.  Letter  engraved  by  A.  Bosse  .... 
lOr.  Title  of  the  71/c?rtKf'iri/o_§'/(7,  engraved  by  Leonard  Gaultier        .... 

102.  Title   engraved    by  Claude   Mellan    for  Urban  VIIl.'s  Poesies,  printed  at  the 

Printing  House,  in  1642  .......... 

103.  Title  of  Pluvinel's  Manège  Royal,  engraved  by  Crispin  Pass  in  1624      . 

104.  Title  of  the /;»('<(t/ioh  of  the  Elzevirs 

105.  Mark  of  Bonaventure  and  Abraham  Elzevir,  printers  at  Leyden.  1620  . 

106.  Plate  taken  from  the  Lumière  dn  Cloistre.     Copperplate  by  Callot 


afte: 


inal: 


Royal 


PAGB 

"5 

n" 
iiS 
120 
'23 

124 

125 
126 

127 

1 28 

129 
130 
131 
132 

'33 

135 
137 
13S 
139 
140 

141 

142 
144 

146 

146 

■47 
149 

152 
155 

156 

159 
160 
161 
■63 

167 
171 
172 

'73 
17b 


;iv  Z/57-   OF  iLI.L'STRATIOyS. 

PAGE 

07.  Title  of  the  A/n«;t7r  i/»/;Va-5(-//r,  by  Desargues,  in  1643,  by  Abraham  Bosse.         .         .  17S 

08.  Print  by  Abraham  Bosse,  representing  the  booksellers  of  the  Palace  under  Louis  XIII.  179 

09.  Frontispiece  of  the  Dictionnaire  de  I'Academie,  1st  edition  1694  .....  1S3 

10.  Antoine  Vitré,  printer  to  the  King,  by  Ph.  de  Champagne 184 

11.  Tailpiece  of  .Sébastien  Leclerc  for  the  PjoH/tv/ffrf^fl'i?  S/.  Gf);;)r7/<(          ....  186 

12.  Small  figure  of  Sébastien  Leclerc  for  Richesource's  pamphlet       .....  1S8 

13.  Frontispiece  by  C.  Le  Brun,  for  the  first  edition  of  Racine,  1676  .....  189 

14.  Letter  by  Cochin  for  the  il/«i/02>fs  f/'.-ir/iV/cnV  of  Suvirey  de  St.  Remy         .         .         .  194 

15.  Vignette  by  Gillot  for  the  Chieii  et  le  Chat,  fable  by  Houdart  de  la  Motte,  in  17 19         .  197 

16.  Vignette  for  Dnphnis  ci  Chloe  by  Cochin,  for  Coustelier's  edition 201 

1 7.  Title-page  engraved  by  Fessard  after  Cochin  for  the  works  of  Madame  Deshoulieres, 

1747 203 

18.  Vignette  taken  from  P.  Corneille's  Theatre,  bj'  Gravelot 204 

19.  Border  designed  by  Choflfard,  in  1758 205 

20.  Frontispiece  by  Eisen  for  the  I'bj'n^c  by  l'Abbé  de  la  Porte,  1 751          .         .         .         .  206 

21.  Vignette  by  Eisen  for  the  Quiproquo  in  the  Contes  of  Lafontaine,  in  the  edition  of  the 

Fcrtiiiers  Genermtx   .............  20S 

22.  Card  of  the  publisher  Prault,  uncle  by  marriage  of  Moreau  le  Jeune     ....  210 

23.  Tailpiece  from  the  jWiv/cc/h  <Ho/J^;-f.Z.H;',  by  Moreau  le  Jeune  .         .         .         .         .211 

24.  Vignette  of  the  Pardon  Obtenu,  designed  by  Moreau  le  Jeune,  for  Laborde's  Chansons, 

in  1773 -'3 

25.  Title  designed  by  Moreau  le  Jeune  in  1769  for  the  publisher  Prault     .         .         .         .215 

26.  Frontispiece  of  the  G/ossarium  of  Du  Dange,  Paris,  Osmont,  1 733        .         .         .         .217 

27.  Illustration  by  Stothard,  from  one  of  the  A'(Y/Sf(*es       .         .                  ....  220 

28.  Illustration  by  Blake,  from  Blair's  Grave 221 

29.  Tailpiece  engraved  on  wood  by  Jean  Baptiste  Papillon  (before  1766)  ....  222 

30.  Experiment  in  engraving  in  relief  by  Moreau  le  Jeune  for  Renouard's  edition  of  La 

Fontaine's  Fables     .............  224 

31.  Portrait  of  Thomas  Bewick    ............  225 

32.  Wood  block  by  Bewick,  from  his  Fables,  iSlS.     The  fox  and  the  goat          .         .         .  226 
^2,.  Wood  block  from  Bewick's  British  Birds.     The  common  duck      .....  227 

34.  Benjamin  Franklin,  by  C.  N.  Cochin      ..........  22S 

35.  M.  Ambroise  Firmin  Didot     ..'..........  233 

36.  Wood  engraving  by  Clennell  after  West,  for  the  diploma  of  the  Highland  Society       .  235 

37.  Vignette  by  Devéria  for  the /";Vi«a'rf« /«  romic 237 

38.  Vignette  by  Jean  Gigoux  for  Gil  Bins 239 

39.  Vignette  by  Daumier  for  the  Cholera  ii  Paris         ........  241 

40.  Vignette  by  Gavarni  for  Paris  Marie 242 

41.  ^^\z^c  \VY\\.in^  h\s  Contes  Drolatiques.     Vignette  by  Gustave  Doré       ....  243 

42.  Illustration  by  Cruikshank,  from  Three  Courses  and  a  Dessert,  by  Clarke     .         .         .  244 

43.  Wood  engraving  b\'  Clennell  after  Stothard,  for  Rogers's  Poems,  1812         .         .         .  245 

44.  Illustration  by  Ludwig  Richter,  from  Bechsteins  Mi'irchcnbuch     .....  247 

45.  Type-founder  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  centurj-.     Engraving  by  Jost  Amman       .  252 

46.  Mark  of  Jodocus  Badius  of  Asch.     Ungvaving  à  la  croi.v  de  Lorraine    ....  25S 

47.  Workman  engaged  on  the  vat  with  the  wire  frame.     Engraving  by  Jost  Amman          .  259 

48.  Balance  used  by  Jenson,  at  Venice         ..........  261 


List  of  Illustrations. 


xv 


149. 
150. 
151. 


153- 

154- 
155- 
156. 

157- 
15S. 

159- 
100. 

161. 
162. 

IÔ,v 
164. 
165. 
166. 
167. 

1 68. 
169. 

170. 
171. 
172. 


cover  of  an 


ISC  Macabre 


Bookbinder's  shop  in  the  sixteenth  century.     Engraving  by  Jost  Amman    . 

Cover  of  the  Evaiigeliariiim  of  Noyon,  made  of  skin,  copper,  and  horn,  with  reliquaries 

Cover  of  a  book  in  enamelled  goldsmith  work  of  Limoges,  fifteenth  centurj',  represent- 
ing Merlin  l'Enchanteur  transformed  into  a  scholar 

Bibliomaniac  of  the  S/i;/i  o/Foo/s 

Binding  in  gold,  ornamented  with  precious  stones,  having  been  used  for  a 
£r'(?;(^(-//ini-/K<H  of  the  eleventh  century  (Louvre)     .... 

Binding  for  Louis  XII.     Collection  of  M.  Dutuit,  of  Rouen    . 

.■\rms  of  the  University  of  O-^ford,  in  which  a  bound  book  appears    '    . 

Cover  of  an  old  Koran    .......... 

The  fourth  part  of  a  binding  for  Thomas  Maioli  (si.\teenth  century) 

Binding  for  Grolier  in  the  collection  of  M.  Dutuit.         .... 

Binding  for  Francis  I.,  with  the  arms  of  France  and  the  Salamander   . 

Mark  of  Guyot  Marchant,  printer  and  bookbinder.     He  published  the  Dal 
of  1485 

Binding  for  Henry  II.,  with  the  "H  "  and  crescents 

Binding  for  Henry  II.  (Mazarin  Library)       ..... 

Italian  binding  for  Catherine  de  Medici,  with  the  initials  "  C.  C." 

Binding  with  the  arms  of  Mansfeldt,  with  lined  scroll  work,  from  the  Didot 

Part  of  a  binding  having  belonged  to  Jacques  de  Thou  (sixteenth  century) 

Mark  of  Nicholas  Eve,  binder  of  Henry  III.  and  Henry  IV.  . 

Sixteenth  century  binding,  called  a  la  fanfare.     In  the  Dutuit  collection 

Le  Gascon  binding  .......... 

Binding  executed  by  Le  Gascon  for  the  MS.  of  Lafontaine's  Adonis,  havin 
to  Fouquet  (seventeenth  century)  ....... 

Le  Gascon  binding  for  Cardinal  Mazarin        .         .         .         .         . 

Mosaic  binding  of  the  eighteenth  centurj'  for  the  Spaccio  de  la  Bcstia  Trionfante . 

Mosaic  binding  of  the  eighteenth  century  with  the  arms  of  the  Regent.    M.  Morgand's 
collection  ............. 


collection 


belonged 


264 
265 

266 

267 

269 
271 
273 
275 
275 
279 
280 

281 
2S2 

2S3 
285 

287 
289 
290 
291 
293 

295 
297 
299 


CHAPTER    I. 


14 


TO       1462. 


Origin  of  the  Book — Engravers  in  relief — The  St.  Chris- 
topher of  1423 — Origin  of  the  Xylographs  —  The 
Xylographs,  Doiiatus  and  Speculum — The  Laurent 
Coster  legend  —  From  block  books  to  movable 
characters  —  John  Gensfleisch,  called  Gutenberg 
■ — The  Strasburg  trial — Gutenberg  at  Mayence  — 
Fust  and  Schoeffer — The  letters  of  indulgence — 
The  Bible — The  Catholicon— The  Mayence  Bible 
—  Causes  of  the  dispersion  of  the  first  Mayence 
printers — General  considerations. 

E  Book  has  ever  been 
the  most  faithful  reflec- 
tion of  the  period  in 
which  it  was  written  and 
illustrated.  Simple  and 
genuine   from   the   beginning,    embellished 


2  Tue  Book. 

with  crude  illustrations,  it  assumed  in  the  sixteenth  century 
the  grand  airs  of  the  Renaissance,  gay  or  serious  according 
to  requirements,  decked  in  what  were  then  called  histoyres,  or 
wonderful  engravings,  daintily  printed  either  in  Gothic,  Roman, 
or  choice  Italic  characters.  At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century  it  had  partly  abandoned  zvood  for  metal  or  line 
engravings,  heightening  its  mysticism  or  its  satire  at  the  whim 
of  passing  politics  and  religious  wranglings.  Then,  under  the 
influence  of  the  painters  and  courtiers  of  the  Grand  Monarque, 
it  becomes  completely  transformed,  donning  the  perruque,  so  to 
speak,  indulging  in  allegory  and  conventionalities,  pompous 
and  showy,  and  continuing  the  coquetries  of  the  regency,  the 
pastorals  and  insipidities  of  the  following  reigns,  until  at  last  it 
suddenly  assumes  with  the  heroes  of  the  Revolution  the  airs  of 
classic  art.  Thus  the  Book,  the  child  of  Painting,  has  always 
been  as  closely  connected  with  the  manners  of  our  forefathers 
as  that  art  itself.  The  artist  submits  more  than  he  thinks  to 
the  tendency  of  his  surroundings  ;  and  if  he  at  times  impresses 
his  mark,  it  is  because  he  has  more  or  less  received  his  first 
influence  from  others. 

The  fashion  of  emblematic  representation  in  the  sixteenth 
century  placed  under  the  portrait  of  Gaston  de  Foix  a  figure 
of  a  fast-growing  plant,  ripe  as  soon  as  it  was  in  bud,  with 
the  Latin  inscription,  "  Nascendo  maturus."  The  Book  deserves 
the  same  device  ;  from  its  first  day  up  to  now  it  is  a  marvel 
of  simplicity  and  harmony.  There  was  hardly  any  groping 
in  the  dark,  except  with  those  experiments  which  preceded 
the  discovery  of  printing  ;  it  may  be  said  that  from  the  moment 
Gutenberg  conceived  the  idea  of  separating  the  characters,  of 
arranging  the  words  in  the  form,  of  inking  them,  and  of  taking 
a   proof  on  paper,   the   Book  was  perfect.      At    best   we    see   in 


The  Block-Books.  3 

later  times  some  modifications  of    detail,  but  the  art  of  printing 
was  mature,   mature  from  its  birth. 

But  before  arriving  at  what  appears  to  us  to-day  so  simple, 
namely,  the  movable  type  placed  side  by  side,  forming  sentences, 
many    years    passed.      It  is  certain    that    long    before  Gutenberg 


Fig.  I.-  The  Fool  :   Playing  Card  ol'Taroc  (fifteenth  centnry). 

a  means  was  found  of  cutting  wood  and  metal  in  relict,  and 
reproducing  by  pressure  the  image  traced.  Signs-manual  and 
seals  were  a  kind  of  printing,  inasmuch  as  the  relief  of 
their  engraving  is  impressed  upon  some  sheet  by  the  hand. 
But  between  this  simple  fact  and  the  uncritical  histories  of 
certain    special    writers,   attributing    the    invention    of    engraving 


4  The  Book. 

to  the  fourteenth  century,  there  is  all  the  distance  of  historical 
facts  and  legends.  Remembering  that  the  numerous  guilds  of 
tailleurs  d'images,  or  sculptors  in  relief,  had  in  the  Middle  Ages 
the  specialty  of  carving  ivories  and  of  placing  effigies  on  tombs, 
it  can  be  admitted,  without  much  stretch  of  imagination,  that 
these  people  one  day  found  a  means  of  multiplying  the  sketches 
of  a  figure  often  asked  for,  by  modelling  its  contour  in  bold  lines 
in  relief  on  ivory  or  wood,  and   afterwards  taking  a  reproduction 


Fig.  2.— St.  Christoplier  (142J1. 

on  paper  or  parchment  by  some  kind  of  pressure.  When  and 
where  was  this  discovery  produced  ?  We  cannot  possibly  say  ; 
but  it  is  certain  that  playing  cards  (Fig.  i)  were  produced  by 
this  means,  and  that  from  the  year  1423  popular  figures  were 
cut  in  wood,  as  we  know  from  the  St.  Christopher  of  that  date 
belonging  to   Lord  Spencer. 

It   is   not  our  task  to  discuss  this  question   at   length,  nor  to 
decide   if  at  first  these  reliefs  were   obtained  on  wood   or  metal. 


The  Block-Books. 


One  thing  is  certain,  that  the  single  leaf  with  a  figure  printed 
upon  it  preceded  the  xylographie  book,  in  which  text  and 
illustration  were  cut  in  the  same  block.  This  latter  process 
did  not   appear  much   before  the  second  quarter  of  the  fifteenth 


Fig.  3.-Xylographic  Plate,  cut  in  Flanders  (1440),  representing  Jesus  after  the  flagellation. 

century,  and  it  was  employed  principally  for  popular  works,  the 
taste  for  which  was  then  universal.  The  engraving  was  pro- 
bably a  kind  of  imposition,  being  palmed  off  as  a  manuscript  ;  the 
vignettes  were  often  covered  with  brilliant  colours  and  glittering 
gold,  and  the  whole  sold  for  something  better. 


The  Book. 


The   first  attempts  at  these  little   figures    in    relief,   invented 
by   the    image-makers   and    diffused    by   the    makers   of    playing 


eprjacolyiiiaiot. 

Fig.  4. — Xylographie  Plate,  representing  St.  John.      Ci\.  1440.     With 
a  text  of  the  commandments  of  the  Church. 

cards,  were  but  indiffe.e.it.  The  drawing  and  the  cutting  were 
equally  unskilful,  as  we  may  convince  ourselves  from  the  fac- 
similes given  by  M.  H.  Delaborde  in  his  Histoire  de  la  Gravure. 


The  " DuxATrs:' 


An  attempt  had,  however,  been  made  to  put  some  text  at  the 
foot  of  the  St.  Christopher  of  1423,  and  the  idea  of  giving 
more  importance  to  the  text  must  have  dawned  upon  many 
booksellers.       At   the   mercy   of    the   writers   who    fleeced   them, 


j  riûitie  qurppûûm  alijo  pût* 
tilîua  ojatoie  ûnnififflnmt 
mtdxixmn^ku  aurmurar 
autinimittuSjgjorttici  ^mtaamx" 
^iiuf.^mt'Caûiô  nn.Qn0f  calUô 
fôuorôiiif  Jlmlô  laîîhfiô.Sajîpa  < 
fimmfôartîfafuôruf  aD.  apuîi.  aiitf 
3Biif  rrunî.rt0.nfra.nrflj.nrca.  rorra. 
rrira.frrra.hircr4nfra.infra.uttta  ci''' 
jptHîf.prT.jfijf  jjff  «Alrîini.yo&.traim 
iilrra,p^fnT.(upja.:irnffr.uIj[]^.(rfuo 
pftiro.fi^uô  Dinmim  f  nr  jlD  pannii 
0|iut  mManff  mù  zmnîmmm 
ftr0,n0  rnifi.ntrafojû.  nrm  uinno'* 
^ra  tf mplilfonf ra  ftonro.frgajpuv 
ilii0ô.mrarmiùnai^iiîtfrnauf9.ui* 
tra  rafnia.mtra  rrmlmrra  inarf Ito 
chau0nnfi4Jonf  mbunalg  parifmn 
'^fftmftrâ.jjïtfrî»ffiplntâ  frdnifo 

Fig.  5. — Part  of  a  Doiwttis  taken  from  a  xylograph,  the  original  of  whicli.is 
preserved  in  the  Bibliothèque  Nationale. 

obliged  to  recoup  themselves  by  charging  exaggerated  prices  for 
the  most  ordinary  books,  they  proposed  to  take  advantage  of  the 
engraving  in  order  to  obtain  on  better  terms  the  technical  work 
needed   for   their   trade.     At   the   epoch   of  the   St.    Christopher, 


8  THE  Book. 

in  1423,  several  works  were  in  demand  in  the  universities,  the 
schools,  and  with  the  public.  Among  the  first  of  these  were 
the  Latin  Syntax  of  /Elius  Donatus  on  the  eight  parts  of 
speech,  a  kind  of  grammar  for  the  use  of  young  students,  and 
also  the  famous  Spec2ilwn,  a  collection  of  precepts  addressed  to 
the  faithful,  which  were  copied  and  recopied  without  satisfying 
the  demand. 

To  find  a  means  of  multiplying  these  treatises  at  little  cost 
was  a  fortune  to  the  inventor.  It  is  to  be  supposed  that  many 
artisans  of  the  time  made  an  attempt  ;  and  without  doubt  it  was 
less  the  booksellers  themselves,  mostly  mere  dealers  as  they 
were,  than  the  image  cutters  and  sculptors  who  were  tempted 
to  the  adventure.  But  none  had  yet  been  so  bold  as  to  cut 
in  relief  a  series  of  blocks  with  engravings  and  text  destined 
to  compose  a  complete  work.  That  point  was  reached  very 
quickly  when  some  legend  was  engraved  at  the  foot  of  a 
vignette,  and  it  may  be  thought  that  the  Donatus  was  the 
most  ancient  of  books  so  obtained  among  the  "  Incunabula," 
as  we  now  call  them,  a  word  that  signifies  origin  or 
cradle. 

The  first  books  then  were  formed  of  sheets  of  paper 
or  parchment,  laboriously  printed  from  xylographie  blocks, 
that  is  to  say,  wooden  blocks  on  which  a  tailleur  d images 
had  left  the  designs  and  the  letters  of  the  text  in  relief  He 
had  thus  to  trace  his  characters  in  reverse,  so  that  they 
could  be  reproduced  as  written  ;  he  had  also  to  avoid  faults, 
because  a  phrase  once  done,  well  or  ill,  was  permanent.  It 
was  doubtless  this  difficulty  of  correction  that  gave  the  idea 
of  movable  types.  If  the  engraver  made  gross  mistakes,  it  was 
necessary  to  cancel  the  faulty  block  altogether.  This  at  least 
explains    the    legend    of    Laurent    Coster,     of     Haarlem,     who. 


Tue  Coster  Legexp.  g 

according  to  Hadrian  Junius,  his  compatriot,  discovered  by 
accident  the  secret  of  separate  types  while  playing  with  his 
children.  And  if  the  legend  of  which  we  speak  contains  the 
least  truth,  it  must  be  found  in  the  sense  above  indicated,  that 
is  in  the  correction  of  a  mistake,  rather  than  in  some  innocent 
game  with  which  the  churchwarden  of  Haarlem  was  occui)ied. 
However,  we  shall  have  occasion  to  return  to  the  subject  of 
these  remarks,  but  in  passing  we  must  state  that  engraving  in 
relief  on  wood  alone  gave  the  idea  of  making  xylographie 
blocks  and  of  forming  them  into  books.  Movable  type,  the 
capital  point  of  printing,  the  pivot  of  the  art  of  the  Book, 
suggested  itself  later  on,  according  to  necessities  that  made 
themselves  felt  when  there  was  occasion  to  correct  an  erroneous 
inscription  ;  but,  at  any  rate,  it  was  not  known  at  the  outset. 
Doubtless,  to  vary  the  te.xt,  means  were  found  to  replace 
entire  phrases  by  other  phrases,  preserving  the  original  figures  ; 
and  thus  the  light  dawned  upon  these  craftsmen,  while 
occupied    in    the    manufacture    and    sale    of   their    books. 

According  to  Hadrian  Junius,  Laurent  Janszoon  Coster  had 
published  one  of  those  Spéculums  which  were  then  so  popular 
(the  mystic  style  of  which  exercised  so  great  an  attraction  on 
the  people  of. the  fifteenth  century),  viz.,  the  Speculum  Huviance 
Salvatiotiis.  Written  before  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
made  popular  by  manuscripts,  in  spite  of  its  fantastic  Latinity 
and  of  its  false  quantities,  this  ascetic  and  badly  conceived 
poem  from  the  first  tempted  the  xylographists.  Junius,  as 
we  see,  attributes  to  Laurent  Coster  the  first  impression  of 
the  Speculum,  no  longer  the  purely  xylographie  impression 
of  the  Donatus  from  an  engraved  block,  but  that  of  the 
more  advanced  manner  in  movable  types.  In  point  of  fact, 
this     book     had    at    least     four    editions,    similar    in    engravings 


lO  TUE    BUOK. 

and  size  of  letters,  but  of  different  text.  It  must  then  be 
admitted  that  the  fount  was  dispersed,  and  typography  dis- 
covered, because  the  same  unintelligible  fount  of  letters  could 
not  be  adapted  to  different  languages.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  identity  of  the  vignettes  indicates  sufficiently  the  mobility 
of  the  types.  In  comparison  with  what  may  be  seen  in  later 
works,  the  illustrations  of  the  Speculum  are  by  no  means  bad  ; 
they  have  the  appearance,  at  once  naive  and  picturesque,  of 
the  works  of  Van  Eyck,  and  not  at  all  of  the  character  of  the 
German  miniaturists  ;  properly  illuminated  and  gilded,  they  lent 
themselves  to  the  illusion  of  being  confounded  with  the  /listoyres, 
drawn  by  hand,  and  this  is  what  the  publisher  probably 
endeavoured. 

All  the  .xylographie  works  of  the  fifteenth  century  may  then 
be  classed  in  two  categories  ;  the  xylographs,  rightly  so  called, 
or  the  block  books,  such  as  the  Donahis  with  fi.xed  type, 
and  the  books  with  more  or  less  fixed  plates  and  with  movable 
types,  like  the  Speculum,  of  which  we  speak.  This  mystic 
and  simple  literature  of  pious  works  for  the  use  of  people  of 
modest  resources  acquired  in  printing  the  means  ol  more  rapid 
reproduction.  Then  appeared  the  Biblia  Pauperum  (see 
Frontispiece),  one  of  the  most  celebrated  and  the  most 
often  reproduced  of  the  block- books,  and  the  Ars  Moricmii 
(see  Fig.  6),  a  kind  of  dialogue  between  an  angel  and  the  devil 
at  the  bedside  of  a  dying  person,  which,  inspired  no  doubt  by 
older  manuscripts,  retained  for  a  long  time  in  successive  editions 
the  first  tradition  of  its  design.  On  labels  displayed  among  the 
figures  are  found  inscribed  the  dialogue  of  the  demons  and 
angels  seeking  to  attach  to  themselves  the  departing  soul,  the 
temptations  of  Satan  on  the  subject  of  faith,  and  the  responses 
of   the  angel  on    the    same    subject. 


The  Block-Books.  ii 

We    can    see   what    developments    this   theme  could   lend    to 


Fig.  6. —  Fac-sirailc  ol  page  5  ol  the-  first  edition  ol  the  An  Manendi. 


the  mysticism    of   the    fifteenth   century.       Composed    of  eleven 


12 


The  Book. 


designs,  the  Ars  Moriendi  ran  up  to  eight  different  editions. 
From  the  middle  to  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  text 
was  in  Latin,  then  in  French,  under  the  title  U Art  an  Morier 
(Fig.  7).  In  the  French  edition  will  be  found  the  blocks  that 
served  for  the  second  impression  of  the  work.  About  1480,  more 
than  fifty  years  after  the  first  attempt,  the  Ai^s  Moriendi  was  still 


I 


I 


Fig.  7. —  Xylograpliic  ligurc  from  the  An, Moriendi,  copied  in  reverse  in  the  Ait  an  Morier. 

so  much  in  demand  that  an  attempt  was  made  to  take  it  up  again 
with  all  the  resources  of  typography  as  much  as  in  its  earliest 
days.  The  original  subjects,  copied  in  a  very  indifferent  manner, 
adorned  the  te.xt,  which  was  set  up  in  Gothic  letters,  with  a 
new  and  more  explicit  title  :  Tractatns  hrevis  ac  valde  iitilis 
de    Arte    et    Scientia    bene    moriendi    (4to,    s.l.    et  a.),    but    the 


TlIK    Bl.OCK-BOOKS. 


13 


order    is   inverted,     Fig.    5    ot    the  xylographie    worlc    becoming 
No.    3    of    the    edition   of    1480. 

The    Ars   Memorandi,  another  xylographie  work,    of    which 

the  subject,  taken    from    the  New  Testament,  was  equally  well 


Fig.  S. — Figure  of  the  school  of  Martin  Schongauer,  talien  from  the  Ralioimrniiii  Ei'angclistai  iiin 
of  1505,  and  copied  from  the  corresponding  plate  of  the  Ars  Mcinorandi. 

adapted  to  the  imagination  of  the  artists,  had  an  equally 
glorious  destiny.  The  work  originally  comprised  thirty  blocks, 
the  fifteen  blocks  of  text  facing  the  fifteen  engravings.  The 
designs  represented  the    attributes    of  each    of   the    Evangelists, 


74  Tue  Book. 

with   allegories    and    explanatory   legends.      Thus,   in    that    which 
relates  to  the  Apostle   Matthew, 

No.    I    represents  the   Birth  and  Genealogy  of  Jesus   Christ, 

No.   2   the  Adoration  of  the   Magi, 

No.   3   the   Baptism  of  St.  John, 

No.  4  the  Temptation  of  Christ, 

No.   5  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 

No.  6  the  Parable  of  the  Birds. 

The  angel  that  supports  the  whole  is  the  emblem  of  St. 
Matthew  the  Evangelist. 

This  mnemonic  treatment  of  the  Gospels  proceeded  from 
symbols  of  which  we  have  no  means  of  finding  the  origin, 
but  which  without  doubt  went  back  many  centuries  earlier. 
However  that  may  be,  their  success  was  as  great  as  that  of  the 
already  quoted  works.  In  1505  a  German  publisher  published  an 
imitation  of  it,  under  the  title  of  Rodionarium  Evangelistarttiii 
(Fig.  8)  ;  and  this  time  the  copyist  of  the  illustrations, 
although  trying  to  retain  the  tradition  of  the  first  xylographers, 
none  the  less  reveals  himself  as  an  artist  of  the  first  order, 
at  least  a  pupil  of  Martin  Schongauer.  Some  of  the  con- 
ceptions of  the  Radoiiariiini  recall  exactly  the  engravings  of 
the  great  German  master,  among  others  that  of  the  Child 
Jesus  (plate  12),  which  nearly  approaches  the  style  of  the 
Infant  Jesus  of  Schongauer  ;  besides,  the  principal  figures  leave 
but  little  doubt  on  the  subject.  We  find  the  same  wings 
on  the  angels  and  on  the  eagles,  the  same  head-dresses  on  the 
human  characters,   often  the  same  attitudes. 

From  the  preceding  can  be  judged  the  extraordinary  favour 
which  these  productions  enjoyed.  From  their  origin  they  were 
diffused  through  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  attracted  the  atten- 
tion   of   excellent    artists.       Nevertheless    their    beginnings    were 


GCTEX/IKNG. 


IS 


difficult.  The  movable  types  used,  cut  separately  in  wood,  were 
not  constituted  to  give  an  ideal  impression.  We  can  besides 
understand  the  cost  that  the  making  of  these  characters  must 
have  occasioned,  which  were  designed  to  stand  one  by  one 
without  the  possibility  of  ever  making  them  perfectly  uniform. 
Progress  was  made  in  substituting  for  this  imperfect  process  types 
that  were  similar,  identical,  easily  produced,  and  used  for  a  long 
time    without    breaking.       Following    on    the    essays  of    Laurent 


Fig.  9. — Portrait  of  Gutenberg,  from  an  engraving  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


Coster,  continuous  researches  were  brought  to  bear  on  this 
point  ;  but  as  the  invention  was  said  to  be  his,  and  as  it  was 
of  importance  to  him  not  to  divulge  it,  so  that  he  should  not 
forego  his  profit,  it  so  happened  that  much  time  was  lost  in 
his  workshop  without  much  success.  Here  history  is  somewhat 
confused.  Hadrian  Junius  positively  accuses  one  of  Laurent 
Coster's  workmen  of  having  stolen  the  secrets  of  his  master 
and    taken    llight  to    Mayence,    where   he    afterwards    founded    a 


1 6  The  Book. 

printing  office.  According  to  Junius,  the  metal  type  had  been 
the  discovery  of  the  Dutchman,  and  the  name  of  the  thief  who 
appropriated  it  was  John.  Who  was  this  John  ?  Was  it  John 
GensHeisch,  called  Gutenberg,  or  rather  John  Fust  .^  But 
it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  Gutenberg,  a  gentleman  of 
Mayence,  exiled  from  his  country,  ever  took  service  with  the 
Dutch  inventor.  As  to  Fust,  as  we  shall  see,  he  only  was 
mixed  up  with  the  association  of  printers  of  IMayence  as  a 
money-lender,  from  which  the  unlikelihood  of  his  having  been 
with  Coster  may  be  gathered.  We  also  find  Gutenberg  retiring 
to  Strasburg,  where  he  pursued  his  researches.  There  he 
was,  a  kind  of  broken-down  gentleman,  a  ruined  noble,  whose 
great  knowledge  was,  however,  bent  entirely  on  invention. 
Perhaps,  like  many  others,  he  may  have  had  in  his  hands 
one  of  the  printed  works  of  Laurent  Coster,  and  conceived 
the  idea  of  appropriating  the  infant  process.  In  1439  he 
associated  himself  with  two  artisans  of  the  city  of  Strasburg, 
ostensibly  in  the  fabrication  of  Jllirroj'S,  which  may  be  other- 
wise understood  as  the  printing  of  Spéculums,  the  Latin  word 
signifying  the  same  thing.  These  men  were  obliged  to  sur- 
round themselves  with  precautions  ;  printing  was  as  yet  only 
a  practical  means  of  multiplying  manuscripts,  to  impose  on  the 
unsuspecting  ones,  and  fortune  awaited  him  who,  keeping  his 
counsel,  made  use  of  this  invention.  The  following  will  prove 
this,   as  well  as  bearing  on   the  subject. 

A  legal  document  discovered  in  1 790  by  Wencker  and 
Schoeptlin  in  the  Pfennigthurm  of  Strasburg,  and  afterwards 
translated  into  French  by  M.  Leon  de  Laborde,  makes  us  at 
length  acquainted  with  the  work  of  Gutenberg  and  of  his 
associates  Andrew  Dritzehen  and  Andrew  Heilmann.  Appa- 
rently these  three    men   were,   as    we  have  said,  Spiegelinachers, 


GUTEXDERG.  1 7 

that  is  makers  of  mirrors.  Tht;\-  had  jointly  entered  into  a 
deed  by  the  terms  of  which,  if  one  of  the  partners  died  in 
the  course  of  their  researches,  his  heirs  would  have  no  rights 
beyond  an  indemnity  corresponding  to  the  amount  invested  by 
him.  It  happened  that  Andrew  Dritzehen  did  die,  and  that 
one  of  his  brothers  aspired  to  occupy  his  place  in  the  partner- 
ship. The  dead  man  left  debts  behind  him  ;  he  had  squan- 
dered his  florins  by  hundreds  in  his  experiments.  Gutenberg 
having  offered  to  pay  up  the  amounts  expended,  the  heirs  of 
Dritzehen,  who  wanted  more,  summoned  him  before  the  judge 
to  show  why  he  should  not  make  place  for  them  in  the  work 
of  experiments  and  making  of  mirrors.  The  witnesses  in  their 
testimony  before  the  court  told  what  they  knew  of  the  inventions 
of  the  partnership.  One  among  them  deposed  that,  after  the 
death  of  Dritzehen,  Gutenberg's  servant  went  to  the  workshop 
and  begged  Nicholas  Dritzehen,  brother  of  the  deceased,  to  dis- 
place and  break  up  four  forms  placed  in  a  press.  A  second 
testified  that  the  works  of  Andrew  had  cost  him  at  the  least 
three  hundred  florins,  an  enormous  sum  for  those  days.  Other 
witnesses  painted  Gutenberg  in  a  curious  light  :  they  made  him 
out  to  be  a  savage,  a  hermit,  who  concealed  from  his  asso- 
ciates certain  arts  which  the  deed  did  not  stipulate.  One  fact 
proved  that  the  e.xperiments  were  directed  towards  the  manu- 
facture of  metallic  characters.  A  goldsmith,  named  Diinne, 
maintained  that  he  had  received  more  than  a  hundred  florins 
for  work  belonging  to  printing  material  "  das  zu  dcm  true  ken 
gchoret"  "  Trucken  !  " — "Typography!"  Here  the  word  was 
found,  and  from  that  day  usage  has  sanctioned  it. 

Thus  before  1439  John  Gensfleisch,  or  Gutenberg,  was 
devoted  to  the  art  of  reproduction  of  texts,  and  had  conse- 
crated   his    life    and    feeble    resources    to    it.      Three    problems 

2 


1 8  The  Book. 

presented    themselves    to    him.      He    wanted    types   less    fragile 
than  wooden  types  and  less  cosdy  than  engraving.     He  wanted 
a  press  by  the  aid  of  which  he  could  obtain  a  clear  impression 
on  parchment  or  paper.      He  desired  also  that  the  leaves  of  his 
books    should    not    be    anopistographs,    or    printed    on    one    side 
only.     There  were    many  unknown    things    to  vex    his    soul,    of 
which  he  himself  alone  could  have  a  presentiment.      Until  then, 
and  even  long  after,  the  xylographs  were  printed  an  frotton,  or 
with  a  brush,  rubbing  the  paper  upon   the   form   coated  with   ink 
thicker  than  ordinary  ink  ;    but  he  dreamt  of  something  better. 
In    the    course    of    his    work    John    Gutenberg    returned    to 
Mayence.      The  idea  of  publishing  a  Bible,  the  Book  of  books, 
had     taken    possession    of    his    heart.       The    Spicgelmacher    of 
Strasburg    was    on    the  road  to   ruin.     The  cutting  of  his  types 
had    ruined    him,    and    on    his    arrival    in    his     native    town,    his 
stock  in  trade,  which  he  carried  away  with   him,  was  of  no  great 
weight  :  some  boxes  of  type,  an  inconvenient   form,  and  perhaps 
an  ordinary  press,  like  a  wine-maker's  press,  with  a  wooden  screw. 
The    idea  of  using  this  unwieldy  instrument  lor  the  impression 
of    his    forms    had    already    occurred    to    him  ;     but    would     not 
the  frotton  serve  still  better  ?     The  force  of  the  blow   from  the 
bar   would   break  the   miserable   type,    the   raised  parts   of  which 
could    not    resist    the    repeated    strokes.      In  this  unhappy  situa- 
tion    Gutenberg     made     the     acquaintance     of     a    financier    of 
Mayence,   named    Fust,   who    was    in    search  of  a  business,  and 
who    put    a    sum    of   eleven    hundred    florins    at    his    disposal    to 
continue     his      experiments.       Unfortunately     this     money     dis- 
appeared,    it     melted     away,     and     the     results    obtained    were 
it  appears,  absolutely  ludicrous. 

It    is  certain    that   John    Fust  did   not  enter   on   the  engage- 
ment without    protecting  himself.      From  the  first  he  bound  his 


GVTEXBERG  A.XD    FVST.  1 9 

debtor  in  a  contract  for  six  per  cent,  interest,  besides  a  share 
in  the  profits.  In  addition  he  stipulated  repayment  in  case  of 
failure.  Gutenberg,  incautious,  as  is  the  way  of  inventors, 
had  signed  away  all  that  he  possessed  to  procure  funds.  It 
is  however  presumed  that,  during  the  continuance  of  his 
investigations,  he  set  up  in  type  some  current  books  with  the 
resources  at  his  disposal,  that  served  a  little  to  lighten  his 
debts.  But  the  printing  house  of  the  Zuiii  Jungcn  at  Mayence 
was  far  from  shining  in  the  world,  because  the  partnership 
with  Fust  was  aimed  only  at  the  publication  of  a  Bible,  and 
not  at  all  with  the  Spcciiliiins  and  Donatiis  that  were  so  much 
in  vogue  at  that  time.  Besides,  the  money-lender  made  a 
point  of  pressing  his  debtor,  and  did  not  allow  him  any  leisure 
to    labour    outside   the  projected  work. 

About  this  time  a  third  actor  entered  upon  the  scene.  Peter 
Schoeffer,  of  Gernsheim,  a  caligrapher,  who  was  introduced  into 
the  workshop  of  Gutenberg  to  design  letters,  benefited  by  the 
abortive  experiments,  and,  taking  up  the  invention  at  its  deadlock, 
carried  it  forward.  John  of  Tritenheim,  called  Trithemius,  the 
learned  abbot  of  Spanheim,  is  the  person  who  relates  these  facts  ; 
but,  as  he  got  his  information  from  Schoeffer  himself,  too  much 
credence  must  not  be  given  to  his  statements.  Besides,  Schoeffer 
was  by  no  means  an  ordinary  artisan.  If  we  credit  a  Strasburg 
manuscript  written  by  his  hand  in  1449,  he  had  been  a 
student  of  the  "  most  glorious  university  of  Paris."  In  the 
workshop  of  Gutenberg  his  industrious  and  inventive  spirit,  to 
use  the  same  expressions  as  the  x-lbbot  of  Tritenheim,  found 
natural  food  and  a  productive  mine,  and  this  caligrapher  dreamt 
of  other  things  than  merely  drafting  his  letters  for  wood  blocks, 
to  be  cut  by  the  engravers.  Gutenberg,  arrested  in  his  career 
by  the  wants  of  life,  the  worries  of  business,  and  perhaps  also  by 


2o  The  Book. 

the  fatigues  of  his  labours,  may  have  let  the  new-comer  know 
something  of  his  expectations.  One  cannot  know,  but  it  is 
certain  that,  shortly  after,  John  Fust  was  so  fascinated  by 
Schoeffer,  so  attracted  by  his  youth  and  his  skill,  that  he 
resolved  to  put  new  capital  into  the  business.  He  did  more  : 
to  permanently  attach  him,  he  gave  him  his  granddaughter  in 
marriage — not  his  daughter,  as  was  thought  until  M.  Auguste 
Bernard  rectified  this  mistake. 

We  have  now  come  to  1453,  the  year  preceding  the  first 
dated  monument  of  printing  in  movable  types,  TJie  Letters  of 
IndiUgence .  It  may  be  acknowledged  that  this  sudden  affection 
of  Fust  for  his  workman  depended  on  some  interested  motive, 
and  not  upon  any  particular  kindness  of  heart,  of  which  the 
Mayence  citizen  seemed  incapable.  Had  this  former  student 
of  the  university  of  Paris  found  the  means  of  rapidly  found- 
ing metallic  types,  the  search  for  which  had  cost  Gutenberg  so 
many  sleepless  nights  ?  Did  he  complete  it  by  applying  to 
the  fount  the  matrix  and  punch  which  had  then  and  for 
centuries  served  the  makers  of  seals  and  the  money-coiners  ? 
Perhaps,  as  was  most  probable,  the  two  associates  arrived  at 
the  same  result,  and,  putting  their  experiences  together,  were 
enabled    to    conquer    difficulties    hitherto    insurmountable 

The  year  1454  witnessed  the  diffusion  throughout  Christen- 
dom of  letters  of  indulgence,  accorded  by  Pope  Nicholas  V. 
to  the  faithful  who  wished  to  aid  in  funds  the  King  of  Cyprus 
against  the  Turks.  These  circular  letters,  scattered  abroad  by 
thousands  to  every  corner  of  the  world,  had  employed  numerous 
copyists.  Arrived  at  Mayence,  the  distributers  found  a  work- 
shop ready  prepared  to  furnish  copies  in  the  shortest  possible 
time.  They  set  to  work  and  brought  together  all  the  available 
type,    cast    or    cut,  to    set    up    these    famous    letters.      Among 


The  Letters  of  Indulgence.  21 

the  impressions  was  that  of  which  we  give  a  reproduction 
{Fig.  10),  which  belongs  to  the  edition  called  that  of  thirty-one 
lines.  The  original,  now  in  the  Bibliothèque  Nationale,  was 
delivered  for  a  consideration  to  Josse  Ott  von  Mospach  on 
the  31st  of  December,    1454. 

It    is    not   without  interest,   for  the   history  of  the   Book  and 


etc 

tfiiStSi»»  Ç  oTBrKncm  Kgurs  ^rô  njribû  vfi  Pic  cxlpilJ^»  HUi  iilft.l  triaiiû  4  pnmA  ^lcœalrall«^l  Jîîi  œKcciu  iiwrpioiSn,-» 
KfelWi^V.siAiiairl^tCon(iïïo)«P^'n«r«ulAI«^>i-IR'8t'UMH'«"Pf«^tli8>^'5''f''nio'"B|j;cn;a^ 


^m3iftc«fll^o  plcifimâ  Mm  pctôii fuom  ^:  quibjoic  iftfli  1  w!^c  JlJiti  fii«ri  InSuljSiâ  oc  plcalij  tcmirtoil'titid  l..-^JIUil 
S}iiw«tl''flS>ml<i  'pi»  <>'''■''  WiM  xctoc^jalcat-Satifucfoc  e  >-o6  fcfa  fi  fuEuwuiit  aui  j  con  bcicScs  fi  luni:  nàfiainl  Slo 
:jg_^jj,fji;;j,^t<û  jttiW-E'Oiiii  'Î""  rnmulU  n»i4  rini^^cl  quj^j  alia  5ic  inuiici-lcgiiro  imprtioictJ  cc-lcfic  f  .-cpw  R.-(vubn 
«b&uj:ifa,pitû iiiiiku^J.'» uclalia»  non  obfuii.et ipF»  imprtltis  mSicio  ûiio  lit( cms  patit  Simo  flqucmi  ucli.r.jjq,inro 
œlmrtp^-'i.-iint  u-wii.ibum.6t  n  faliquo  Sno!(^)d  œ^  pane  Siciii  iciuniû  cômoic  ^^^lrapl«c  iicquiucnm  Col■fd^^a^  liciiïM 
bt  cfii?mUtaKpor.-!i<  tonlaris  opoa  que  ipF facac  clui  icticSf  DumoN>  tii  cji  jftSoiria  téifioins  bm.-i  quoJ  abfit  pccciif  ron 
Sisfunuiit  alioqui'Mcia  wiusiTiofquo  a5  plmaiiâ  tcmilTionf  in  mojns  lUtioi!»  ct  tctnillw  quo  a>  pcfJ  ck  jhStntià'Sjt  tu£tn' 
BmilknulWri"lt>'b<'n«uclm.'mfHGtquu»ciwtic»  K«i«ui    Ott  \«n.C)»(faA    »v  v»^. -••x.  >»«»-»-»v"^"~"V'"* 
Wta  5U-Û  mtulwm  5c  f.icult.mbia  fuis  p.c  cjosai  «A.  .moieo  l)uii<rmo5i  i><i>ul(iotriK  gauîicjc  îicbtt  Jii-«cnM06  fcitmo 
.S«m&i5i»umA5t«0!5iiM™rnpKfoinb)l.iicii6tcrtimmnalil^tftaH«>*<mOaimni>-u«>vn-.«e-/..V^ 


•  ïf  oîràa  plmiCfimc  abfolutioms  araraffumiB  m  Dira 

.w^v-ÏTCCCatUr tUi ut  DHj nf itxruc ;tp» e fuarcnrnman piffiwo *û;«i'aW*mté(ancK ipi7b<awji<p.Ta« " fanû 
l'^pLj^ ci'^ .ic  J.^ttc aptica  miAi  OTilTj tt nbi  JccRâ Êgolc abfoluo ab  Jiînbî pifi» m» 3ttm« îfcflîs  ^ oblms éro  ab ciribj cafl 
Ko:cc^;b-,tnmlbiatq;^^bc^l6qllÂmcû<J)5Uuib)£>^»laprlCcrcfc^uAntO«>lOMa<^UlbBrcûqiCl^cCKatK-lmrufpcJIrlo^ctl^tc^h^ 
atuTqi  funs ccfuns  i  pcnuccduttius  a  iurc -^jcl  ab bofc  ymuljalis  fi qviae  iiioutirii  >aiiW  iibî  plcillimS oim  pcfMfoiou  inSut  ■ 
(SOUlâ  •a  tsjniiTuîm  ]uquâifi  tloM?»  fanctc  nwiiiitccctic  m  bac  ek  ft  cvccii5St.lii  nomme  patti»  i  filu  a  fpuitMs  (àrnti  ûnun . 

A]/\  ^  rfouiiaplraayt Ktniffimiîsînnuniiôartitula 

3§lê^îfrtt(ItltrIU't'lt  OnfmiJtetuifiipjaejciKabriluoaEomih-pcITs.misJftilis  jfcffis  ToHiVisrcInWoiSoIe-omta 
o  fiJeliii •»  iâsamoiiie  ecttic  Rcmi»oi5o  iibîpcilas  puigawni quae pwptcr  cMipas  et  offciirai^inciurjrii  JaiiN? iibi  ploia:iaji 
pno j!.<aû,»uo:C  temiilJJiJiîWâ'û  eUùcsCK  nu&e«Ijtui  tac  vox^  Te  cntttu'it  .lu  iiofc  pns  «  hlii  ci  Ipûs  Cxncu  amo» . 

(j  »l^  tj^  jV^  Jo  •i»^-  «Yl^'.njtCi)  fn    (uit-rfirx^ 

Fig.  lo. — Letters  of  indulgence,  from  the  so-called  edition  of  thirty  one  lines,  printed  at 
Mayence  in  the  course  of  1454. 

Printing,  to  note  here  that  these  letters  of  indulgence,  the 
clandestine  traffic  in  which  was  largely  accelerated  by  the  rapidity 
of  production  and,  it  may  be  said,  the  small  cost  of  each 
copy,  formed  one  of  the  causes  of  the  religious  reform  of 
Martin  Luther.  They  afforded  a  means  of  raising  money, 
and  were  so  generally  resorted  to  that  in  the  register  of  the 
Hôtel    de  Ville  of   Paris,  preserved  in   the    Archives  Nationales 


22  The  Book. 

(H  1778),  it  may  be  seen  that  the  sheriffs  requested  the  Pope 
to  allow  them  to  employ  them  in  the  reconstruction  of  the 
bridge  at  the  Hôtel  de  V'ille. 

The  ice  once  broken,  Fust  and  Schoeffer  found  it  hard  to 
keep  a  useless  hand.  For  them  Gutenberg  was  more  of  a 
hindrance  than  a  profit,  and  they  sought  brutally  to  rid  them- 
selves of  him.  Fust  had  a  most  easy  pretext,  which  was  to 
demand  purely  and  simply  from  his  associate  the  sums 
advanced  by  him,  and  which  had  produced  so  little.  Gutenberg 
had  to  all  appearance  commenced  his  Bible,  but,  in  face  of 
the  claims  of  Fust,  he  had  to  abandon  it  altogether,  types, 
forms,    and    press 

In  November  1455  he  had  retired  to  a  little  house  outside 
the  city,  where  he  tried  his  best,  by  the  aid  of  foreign  help, 
to  establish  a  workshop,  and  to  preserve  the  most  perfect 
secrecy.  Relieved  of  his  company,  Fust  and  Schoeffer  were 
able  to  continue  the  impression  of  the  Bible  and  to  complete 
it  without  him.  If  matters  really  came  to  pass  in  this  way, 
and  Schoeffer  had  no  claim  to  having  previously  discovered 
the  casting  of  type,  there  is  but  one  word  to  designate  their 
conduct  :  robbery,  and  moral  robbery,  the  worst  of  all.  But 
what  can   we    think   of  these    people  .'' 

One  thing  appears  to  be  certain  :  that  the  so-called 
Gutenberg  Bible,  whether  commenced  by  Gutenberg  or  not, 
was  issued  by  Fust  and  Schoeffer  alone  about  the  end  of  1455 
or  at  the  beginning  of  1456,  and  proves  to  be  the  first  com- 
pleted book.  Having  retired  to  his  new  quarters,  Gutenberg 
was  taking  care  not  to  remain  too  much  in  the  background, 
but  the  reconstitution  of  his  workshop  must  have  cost  him 
enormous  time.  He  also  missed  the  caligrapher  Schoeffer:  his 
own    Gothic    letters,    engraved  on   steel  with    a    punch,    had    not 


The  Gutrxherg  Bihi.e. 


the  same  elegance.  When  his  work  appeared  in  1458  it  could 
not  sustain  comparison.  The  Bible  which  Schoeffer  issued  was 
more  compact,  the  impression  was  more  perfect,  the  ink  better, 

îHïàirtdteitta  aîflfuc  ttlatem^m 
îuOS  OTûff  întâM.prtm9  apui  ma 
lîte^unmf  tariitlirtim  no0  gmtfim 
imim^  S>rua  rilrfniottirqm  £|ODU0 
flflirilat  laxiua  uaçccrazm  i  Immt?» 
ftuart?  uaguate::qu£  nunrnj  uora^ 
nm0.Êuit9riliaîïîabÉrim:qîeufon0^ 
xm  pnotatJiîji  If  ijuîtp  librt  morû: 

fetdm^pBaîi  miïîmMfitrtt  rariiS^ 
unt  a  $u  &lio  namtipn  apim  tlloQ 
ioTm  bititium  &îat«  2SatuX£  rubtc^t 
IbptJtimi  în  tB:  îuDitû  lib]|:£r  in  aîtmt 
tSpmgût  rudi^iiuia  in  \à&&  iutàai  : 
ïm  vd  natcat  Ififtoria,  ïcmuô  ftquî^ 
tur  fammkquau  uoo  rcgnoç  pmiî  i 
6dm  Dîam^.ftuart?  matadfim  iti  f 

Fig.  1 1.— Fragment  of  the  Gutenberg  Bi'jle,  printed  in  two  columns.     Beginning  of  the 
text  in  the  second  co'umn  ;  original  size. 

the  type  less  irregular.  Thus  the  original  inventor,  in  his  con- 
nexion with  Fust,  made  an  unfortunate  competition  for  hmiself. 
W'c  give  here  a  fragment  of  this  celebrated  book,  a  kind  of 
mute  witness  of  the  science  and  mortifications  of  the  first  printer. 


24  The  Book. 

It  is  also  called  the  Mazarine  Bible,  from  the  fact  that  De  Bure 
discovered  the  first  copy  in  the  Mazarine  Library,  and  was  the 
first  to  give  evidence  concerning  it.  The  book  was  issued  at 
the  end  of  1455  or  beginning  of  1456,  for  a  manuscript  note 
of  a  vicar  of  St.  Stephen  at  Mayence  records  that  he  himself 
finished  the  binding  and  illuminating  of  the  first  volume  on 
St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  1456,  and  the  second  on  the  15th  of 
August.  St.  Bartholomew's  Day  is  the  13th  of  June,  and 
not  the  24th  of  August,  as  the  catalogue  of  the  Bibliothèque 
Nationale  has  it. 

Mr.  Bernhard  Ouaritch  gives  a  resu»ic  of  arguments  put 
forth  by  foreign  writers,  tending  to  clear  up  the  claims  of  Guten- 
berg to  the  first  Bible,  and  as  the  subject  is  of  very  high 
importance  we  cannot  do  better  than  here  reproduce,  with  his 
permission,  the  arguments  in  favour  of  Gutenberg.      He  says  : — 

"  A  late  critic  who  first  believed  in  the  Coster  legend,  then 
recanted,  then  believed  again  and  still  believes  in  it,  on  the 
faith  of  three  things,  namely  (i)  the  actual  existence  of  undated 
Donatus  fragments  evidently  early  and  of  Dutch  origin  ;  (2) 
a  phrase  used  in  the  Cologne  Chronicle  of  1499  ;  (3)  the 
Junius  story  printed  in  1588 — has  discussed  the  history  of 
the  first  press  of  Mayence  in  a  very  acute  and  able  essay  on 
Gutenberg.  His  conclusion  is  that  no  Book  is  known  earlier 
than  the  above  forty-two  line  Bible,  and  that  it  was  printed 
about  1454-55  by  Peter  Schoeffer  ;  that  there  exists  no  trace 
of  Gutenberg  as  a  printer  ;  that  the  thirty-six  line  Bible  printed 
in  types  used  by  Pfister  at  Bamberg  in  and  after  1461  may 
have  been  produced  at  Mayence  before  1460.  This  judgment  is 
unconsciously  biassed  by  a  certain  patriotic  animtis  against  the 
name  of  the  man  to  whom  the  invention  of  Printing  is  usually 
ascribed  on  sufficient  evidence.      It  may  not  be  amiss,  therefore, 


TlIK    GVTEXHERG  BlIU.E.  25 

to  quote  a  succession  of  accessible  authorities  on  thi:  subject 
for  those  who  are  not  in  immediate  possession  of  the  facts. 

"  1454.  An  Indulgence  of  this  date  is  printed  in  the  type 
of  the  forty-two  line   Bible. 

"  1456.  The  rubrication  of  the  Paris  copy  of  the  forty-two 
line  Bible  proves  it  anterior  to  this  year. 

"  1457.  The  Psalter  of  this  date  bears  the  names  of  John 
Fust  and  Peter  Schoeffer. 

"  1468.  Peter  Schoeffer,  surv^iving  [ohn  Fust,  prints  the 
Institutes  of  Justinian,  with  a  statement  that  a  different  John 
had  preceded  Jolin  and  Peter  in  the  practice  of  printing  at 
Mayence. 

"  1465-99.  Ulrich  Zell,  who  left  Mayence  in  1462,  declares 
plainly  the  absolute  priority  to  all  other  typographers  of  John 
Gutenberg,  who  made  experiments  in  printing  from  1440  to 
1450,  and  began  to  print  a  Bible  in  missal-type  in    1450. 

"  1470.  Pierre  Fichet,  in  the  Paris  edition  of  Gasparinus  of 
this  year,  states  that  John  Gutenberg  invented  typography  at 
Mayence. 

"  The  specific  information  in  the  Cologne  Chronicle  is  the 
most  valuable  of  all  the  early  e.xternal  evidences,  for  which 
reason  I  quote  it  in  full  below.  Of  the  printed  monuments 
themselves,  all  persons  on  all  sides  are  agreed  that  no  Book 
is  now  in  existence  except  the  forty-two  line  Bible,  to  which 
we  can  with  documentary  certitude  assign  so  early  a  date  as 
M55-56-  A  work  of  such  magnitude,  as  well  as  earliness,  must 
have  occupied  some  years  in  its  production.  With  all  the 
practical  facilities  of  our  own  time,  two  such  volumes,  in  such 
type,  so  carefully  worked  by  means  of  assiduous  revision  and 
rearrangement,  could  hardly  be  printed  by  a  London  printer 
now,   with    less   than  a  year's   effort  ;  at   the   infancy   of  printing. 


26  The  Book. 

we  may  reckon  four  or  five  years  for  the  time  that  was 
necessary.  If  Schoeffer  printed  it,  he  (who,  by  his  own 
statement,  was  the  third  Mayence  typograjDher)  must  have 
begun  the  work  in  1450,  and  must  have  prej^ared  himself  for 
it  by  several  years'  preliminary  studies  (in  the  choosing  and 
making  of  types,  the  elaboration  of  the  j^rocess,  the  construction 
of  machinery  and  appurtenances,  the  gathering  of  material,  etc.). 
Consequently,  if  Schoeffer  was  the  printer  of  the  forty-two 
line  Bible,  he  must  have  begun  his  practical  career  as  a 
typographer  not  later  than  1445.  This  logical  conclusion  is 
a  clear  redttctio  ad  absurduni.  We  do  not  know  when 
Schoeffer  was  born  ;  most  authorities  say  between  1420  and 
1430.  We  do  know  that  he  was  alive  and  still  printing  at 
the  end  of  the  year  1502,  that  in  1465  Fust  called  him  'puer 
meus,'  that  in  1449  he  was  a  student  and  callgrapher  at  Paris. 
Men  began  earlier  and  finished  sooner  in  those  days  than 
now  ;  old  age  was  considered  to  have  set  in  at  fifty  :  few 
persons  reached  the  age  of  seventy.  The  probability  is  that 
Schoeffer  was  about  eighteen  years  of  age  in  1445  ;  but  it 
is  sufficient  for  our  purpose  to  know  that  he  could  have 
had  nothing  to  do  with  typography  in  1449  when  he  wrote 
and  ornamented  a  manuscript  in  Paris.  It  is  utterly  imjDossible 
that  a  young  student  in  Paris,  so  engaged  in  that  year,  could 
have  produced  the  two  volumes  of  the  forty-two  line  Bible  at 
Mayence  between  1450  and  1456,  without  any  preparation  or 
training — e.xcept  by  a  miracle,  which  does  not  usually  happen 
in  the  workaday  world. 

"We  reproduce  here,  out  of  the  Cologne  Chronicle  (printed  in 
1499  by  Johann  Koelhof),  the  passage  referring  to  the  inven- 
tion of  printing  : 

"  '  Of  the  Art  of  Bookprinting. 


The  Grri:.\iiERG  Bible.  27 

"  '  Wlien,  where,  and  by  wliom   was    invented   the   inexpressibly  useful 
art  of  printing  books  ? 

-*  *  ^-  ^  *  * 

"  '  //('.».  This  highly  valuable  art  aforesaid  was  invented  first  of  all 
in  Germany  at  Mayence  on  the  Rhine.  And  it  is  a  great  honour  to  the 
German  nation  that  such  ingenious  men  are  to  be  found  therein.  And  that 
happened  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  a.d.  1440;  and  from  that  time  onward  until 
the  date  of  (14)50,  the  art,  and  what  appertains  to  it,  were  investigated 
and  essayed.  And  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1450,  it  was  then  a  golden 
year,  it  was  then  begun  to  print,  and  the  first  book  that  was  printed 
was  the  Bible  in  Latin,  and  it  was  printed  with  a  massive  character  such 
as  the  letter  in  which  Mass-books  are  now  printed.  Item,  whileas  the 
art  was  invented  at  Mayence  as  aforesaid  in  the  mode  in  which  it  is  now 
commonly  used,  the  first  prefigurement  was,  however,  invented  in  Holland, 
in  the  Donatiiscs  which  were  formerly  printed  there.  And  from  and  out 
of  them  the  beginning  of  the  aforesaid  art  was  taken,  and  it  was  much 
more  masterly  and  subtilely  invested  than  the  same  manner  was  ;  and 
the  longer  it  has  been  practised  the  more  artistic  has  it  become.  Item, 
there  is  one  named  Omnebonus  who  writes  in  a  preface  to  the  book 
named  Quintilianus,  and  also  in  many  other  books,  that  a  foreigner  from 
France  named  Nicolaus  Genson  was  the  first  who  invented  this  masterly 
art,  but  that  is  manifestly  false,  since  there  are  yet  alive  those  who 
testify  that  books  were  printed  at  Venice  before  the  aforesaid  Nicolaus 
Genson  came  thither,  where  he  began  to  cut  and  prepare  letters  (t3'pes). 
But  the  first  inventor  of  Printing  was  a  citizen  of  Mayence,  and  was  born 
at  Strassburg,  and  was  named  junker  Johan  Gudenburch.  Item,  from 
Mayence  the  aforesaid  art  came  first  to  Cologne,  next  to  Strassburg,  and 
then  to  Venice.  The  worthy  man.  Master  Ulrich  Tzell  of  Hanau,  still 
a  printer  at  Cologne  at  the  present  time  in  the  year  1499,  by  whom  the 
aforesaid  art  was  brought  to  Cologne,  has  related  verbally  to  me  the 
beginning  and  progress  of  the  aforesaid  art.  Item,  there  is  also  a  set 
of  wrong-headed  men,  and  they  say  that  books  were  printed  former!}' 
also  ;  but  that  is  not  true,  since  there  are  found  in  no  lands  any  of  the 
books  which  were  printed  at  those  times.' 

"  If    we  analyse  the  above    statement — which,   though    dated  ■ 
1499,   must  be  regarded   as   the   result  of  conversations  between 
1465   and    1472 — we  find  the  following  points  : — 


28  The  Book. 

"(i)  Johann  Gutenberg  was  the  actual  inventor  of  printing, 
in    1440. 

"  (2)  The  first  book  printed  by  him,  after  preliminary  essays 
in  1440-50,  was  a  Bible,  in  missal-type,  printed  (or  begun) 
in    1450; 

"(3)  There  had  been  a  foreshadowing  or  suggestion  of 
printing  in  the  Donatus  sheets  impressed  in  Holland  before 
Gutenberg's  time  ; 

"  (4)  There  had  been  no  typography  anywhere  before  the 
time  of  Gutenberg  ;  notwithstanding  the  assertions  of  some 
wrong-headed  and  perverse  persons  ; 

"  (5)  A  reiteration  of  the  statement  concerning  Gutenberg. 

"  If  No.  (3)  could  possibly  have  referred  to  typography  at 
Harlem  or  elsewhere  in  Holland,  it  would  have  stultified  all 
the  rest  of  the  chapter,  (i),  (2),  (4),  and  (5)  being  in  direct 
contradiction  to  such  an  interpretation.  Only  a  rash  man 
will  see  in  it  anything  else  but  an  allusion  to  the  printing 
of  engraved  blocks  or  Xylography,  which  was  an  invention  of 
great  utility  for  multiplying  school-books,  cheaper  and  easier 
than  the  old  way  of  having  copies  multiplied  by  penmen  ;  but 
not  equal  to  the  masterly  and  subtle  invention  of  movable  types. 

"The  Harlem  story,  beginning  with  Coornhert  and  Junius 
in  the  fifteen-sixties  (just  a  hundred  years  after  Zell's  removal 
to  Cologne),  is  seen  to  be  pure  fable  when  unassociated  with 
the  above  paragraph  (3).  The  perverted  ingenuity  which  has 
frequently  torn  that  paragraph  away  from  its  context,  and  used 
it  as  a  confirmation  for  the  Coster  legend,  cannot  be  too 
strongly  deprecated." 

Of  the  copies  of  the  Gutenberg  Bible  which  turned  up 
during  the  last  forty  years  the  following  recapitulation  may  not 
be  uninteresting  : — 


The  Gutenberg  Bible.  29 

"1847.  A  copy  sold  in  London;  bought  by  Wiley  and 
Putnam  against  Sir  Thomas  Phillipps  for  Mr. 
Lennox  of  New  York,  for  ^500.  Now  in  the 
Lennox  library. 

"  1 858.  The  duplicate  from  the  Munich  library,  sold  at 
Augsburg,  bought  for  the  Emperor  of  Russia 
for  2,336  florins,  about  ^245. 

"  1S58.  The  Bishop  of  Cashel's  copy,  sold  in  London  ; 
bought  by  Mr.  Ouaritch  for  ^595.  Passed  into 
Lord  Crawford's  library,  and  was  bought  by 
him   again    at    Lord   Crawford's  sale  in    18S7    for 

;^2,650. 

"  1872.   An     imperfect     copy,      with      seventeen      leaves     in 

fac-simile,  appeared  for  sale  in  Berlin  by  Mr.  Albert 

Cohn    at   4,000    thalers   (about    ;^6oo),    and    after 

passing    through    the    hands    of    two    purchasers 

successively,    was    bought    at    about    .;^  1,800    for 

a    New  York  library,  in  which  it  now  remains. 

"  1873.    Mr.     Henry     Perkins'     copy,     sold     at      Hanworth 

Park,    near     London,    in    1S73  ;    bought    by    Mr. 

Ouaritch     for    ^2,690.       Now    in     Mr.     Huth's 

library. 

The  Perkins'   copy   on  vellum   (two   or    four   leaves 

in   fac-simile),   bought  for    Lord    Ashburnham   for 

^3,400.      Now  at  Battle. 

"  1878.   A     copy     on     vellum,     with      painted      initials      and 

miniatures,    was  found  in  Spain  by  1\L  Bachelin. 

He  had  it  restored  by  Pilinski  in   fac-simile,    and 

sold    it    (after    offering    it    to     Mr.    Ouaritch    for 

^2,000)  to  Mr.  Albert  Cohn,  who  resold  it  to  the 

late  Mr.    H.   Klemm  of  Dresden.      It  is  the  most 


30  THE  Book. 

interesting  copy  now  in  evidence,  being  the  only 
one  with  contemporary  miniatures,  and  is  now 
deposited  for  exhibition  in  the  new  Buchhandler- 
Borse    at    Leipzig. 

"  1884.   In     February,     the      Kamensky    copy     of     the    Old 
Testament    portion    bought    by    Mr.    Ouaritch    at 
Sotheby's    for  £'j6o.     Now  in  America. 
"In     May,     an    odd    volume     belonging    to     Lord 

Gosford  fetched  .^500. 
"  In     December,    Sir    John     Thorold's     copy     was 
bought  by  Mr.  Ouaritch  at  Sotheby's  for  ^3,900. 
It  still  remains  in  Great   Britain. 

"  1887.   Mr.   Ouaritch  bought  Lord  Crawford's  copy,  as  men- 
tioned above,   for  ^2,650. 

"  1889.   February.       Lord    Hopetoun's    copy    bought  by   Mr. 
Ouaritch  at  Sotheby's  for  ^2,000." 

But  so  many  copies  absolutely  similar  in  aspect,  and  of  so 
regular  a  style,  put  in  the  market  from  day  to  day  by  Fust 
and  Schoeffer,  gave  rise  to  protests  from  the  caligraphers. 
Criticism  always  attends  upon  success,  but  having  once  obtained 
the  result,  the  two  associates  did  not  hesitate  to  proclaim  them- 
selves as  the  printers  of  the  Bible.  On  the  publication  of  the 
Psalter,  which  followed  the  Bible  at  a  year's  interval,  they 
gave  their  names  and  added  a  date,  1457,  the  first  instance 
of  a  date  being  recorded  in  a  book.  This  second  work,  which 
preceded  the  Gutenberg  Bible,  was  of  so  skilful  a  typography, 
that  it  might  have  been  passed  as  the  work  of  an  expert 
caligrapher  ;  the  faults  remarked  in  the  letters  of  indulgence 
are  no  longer  perceptible  ;  type  had  attained  perfection  ;  in 
two    years  printing  had   reached   its  culminating  point. 


The  Psai.ter. 


31 


We  here  reproduce  a  facsimile  of  the  second  edition  of 
this  celebrated  work  printed  in    1459,  two  years  later. 

The  Bibles,  like  the  Dtirandus  of  1459  and  the  Catholicon  of 
1460,  had  an  interest  for  many  purchasers,  while  the  Psalter  would 
have  concerned  only  a    few  wealthy  churches.     All  the  existing 


emte  fgultemtte  tomîuo^ 

Xultate  XM' 
ftiintmoitr 

ôfitemîî) 


pfalteao  îierf 


Fig.  12.— Fac-simile  of  the  Psalter,  1459. 

copies  of  both  Psalters  indicate  that  they  were  adapted  simply  to 
Mayence  uses,  and  until  one  is  found  which  conforms  to  the  use  of 
some  church  outside  that  city,  we  shall  be  inclined  to  consider 
that  the  book  was  privately  printed  in  the  modern  sense,  and 
that  the  issue  was  extremely  limited.  It  is  not  the  sort  of 
book  which  would  have  been  wilfully  destroyed,  or  which  could 


32  The  Buuk. 

have  perished  from  decay.  Many  an  honest  man  might  have 
been  tempted  to  steal  it,  but  its  obvious  splendour  and  value 
would  have  made  it  safe  even  in  the  hands  of  a  plunderer. 
The  cost  of  production  must  have  been  enormous,  and  could 
only  have  been  paid  for  by  private  munificence.  The  sale  of 
copies,  as  ordinary  book-ware,  could  never  have  reached  any 
possible  figure  high  enough  to  cover  such  an  expense.  This 
explains  the  extraordinary  scarcity  and  enormous  price  of  the 
Psalter,  a  copy  of  the  second  edition  of  which  was  sold 
at  Sir  John  Thorold's  sale  for  the  extraordinary  sum  of 
^4.950. 

In  spite  of  his  disappointments,  Gutenberg  did  not  rest 
idle.  If  he  had  seen  his  two  enemies  rob  him  of  his  claim 
of  priority  in  the  invention,  he  wanted  to  show  that,  reduced 
to  his  own  exertions  and  to  the  restricted  means  furnished 
him  by  charitable  people,  he  also  could  print  well.  Two  years 
after  the  Bible  another  dated  book,  set  up  in  Gothic  letters, 
appeared  at  Mayence  ;  this  was  the  Catholicon  of  John 
Balbus,  of  Genoa.  It  had  not  yet  occurred  to  these  first 
printers  to  exercise  their  art  otherwise  than  on  religious  works. 
It  is  admitted  by  general  opinion  that  the  Catholicon  issued 
from  the  press  of  Gutenberg  ;  on  the  other  hand,  M.  Bernard 
believes  that  it  ought  to  be  attributed  to  a  printer  of  Eltvil, 
who  published  in  1467  a  vocabulary  called  the  Vocabularium 
ex  qîio  with  the  same  types.  The  former  theory  may  be  sus- 
tained by  the  words  of  the  colophon  of  the  book,  which  is  a 
sort  of  hymn  to  God  and  a  recognition  to  the  city  of  Mayence 
without  any  mention  of  the  name  of  the  printer.  Now  in  the 
situation  in  which  Gutenberg  found  himself,  in  the  face  of  his 
rivals,  would  he  not  have  claimed  the  great  discovery  as  his 
own  ?     But  if  M.    Bernard    is  mistaken,  and    if  our  supposition 


The  Cathoucox.  33 

has  no  foundation,  what  a  beautiful  act  of  humility,  what  a 
noble  idea  of  his  character,  Gutenberg  gives  us  when  he 
writes  :  "  With  the  aid  of  the  Most  High,  Who  unlooses  the 
tono-ues  of  infants  and  often  reveals  to  babes  that  which  is 
sealed  to  learned  men,  this  admirable  book  the  Catholicon  was 
finished  in  the  year  of  the  incarnation  of  our  Saviour 
MCCCCLX.  in  the  mother-country  of  Mayence,  famous  city  of 
Germany,   which   God,   in    His  clemency,    has  deigned  to  render 


WlHfTimJ  pjtfiofo  niiuc  nuhi  mfanHum  lin^iic  fi 
lïtir  ojfôrre.Qu)  eg  mlolcpo  ipuulio  rcucl.xt  quoo 
ftpientibuo  ccbr.bic  liber  ogttijiuo.catboliron. 
Onicc  Tncarnaaonio  ^inni^  00  vczc  Ix  /llm«a  m  ur 
bo  maçuntind  narionio  mdire  c«rm<ini<T.QuAni 
Cei  dcmcnoa  tarn  alto  m^cnii  lumiiic.Dono  cç  oj- 
tuiro.cvreris  ttrrai;  nacionibuc  pjicFcrncillunrrjin: 
eg  D\ap^\^^^  cfl-  Aon  calami. ftjlj.aut  pcnnc  fiifFra 
qpo.l?  mtiu  patmndi;  formai;  cç  roncDzoia^or 
Clone  cf  moOulo.imprcfluB  atqj  confcctuc  eft. 
iTJinc  tibj  fànch?  patçr  naiD  cû  Ram'mo  lacno.lau» 
ct  bonoi  ono  trine  tribuaht]  ct  uno  Gcdcfic  lau 
«X  libra  boc  atbolicv  plauoe  Qui  UuDare  piam 
(cmpcr  non  Ijnquc.mariûm    D(Eg).  (S  R4SMSL 

Fig.  13. — Colophon  of  the  Cnlholiam,  supposed  to  have  been  printed  by 
Gutenberg  in  1460. 

the  most  illustrious  and  the  first  of  cities  ;  and  this  book  was 
perfected  without  the  usual  help  of  pen  or  style,  but  by  the 
admirable  linking  of  formes  and   types  "  ! 

Its  excessive  rarity  is  too  well  known  to  require  any 
comment,  and  its  literary  merit  is  so  considerable  that  the 
London  editor  of  Stephani  Thesaurus  Latinus  has  pronounced 
it  "  the  best  Dictionary  for  the  Latin  Fathers  and  Schoolmen." 
Sir    John    Thorold's    copy    sold    for    ^400    and    Wodhull's    for 


34  The  Book. 

The  history  of  these  first  printers,  it  is  easy  to  understand,  has 
to  be  regarded  with  caution,  for  they  were  of  so  Uttle  consequence 
in  those  days  that  authentic  documents  relating  to  them  have 
for  ever  disappeared.  If  we  except  that  of  the  Pfennigthurm  of 
Strasburg,  of  which  we  have  before  spoken,  and  the  deed  of  claim 
for  money  from  Fust  to  Gutenberg  dated  1455,  we  are  forced 
to  quote  from  authors  living  a  long  time  afterwards,  who 
perpetrated,  without  knowing  better,  the  errors  of  oral  tradition. 
It  is  nearly  always  the  same  with  men  who  have  occupied  a 
large  place  in  the  history  of  art  :  posterity  only  finds  out  their 
genius  at  the  time  when  no  one  knows  anything  about  them. 
For  Gutenberg  the  situation  was  still  more  terrible  ;  his  rival, 
Peter  Schoeffer,  survived  him,  who  for  his  own  reputation's 
sake  did  not  care  to  preserve  his  rival's  memory  ;  and  if,  as  is 
believed,  Gutenberg  left  pupils  and  heirs,  Henry  Bechtermunze, 
Ulrich  Zell,  and  Weigand  Spiess,  he  has  the  additional  mis- 
fortune that  Bechtermunze  is  now  reputed  as  the  printer 
of  the  Catholicon,  of  which  we  have  just  given  the  history. 
We  need  not  here  refer  to  Albert  Pfister,  one  of  his  work- 
men, dismissed  at  the  end  of  his  work,  who  having  obtained 
from  his  master  some  rejected  types,  was  presumed  later  to 
have  invented  printing.  We  find  this  artisan  established  at 
Bamberg  about  1460,  where  he  set  up  Bibles  in  movable 
types,  the  first  known  being  the  thirty-six  line  Bible,  a 
specimen  of  which  is  preserved  in  the  Bibliothèque  Nationale 
and  the  British  Museum.  But  Albert  Pfister  showed  that  he 
was  not  at  all  an  inventor  by  the  mediocrity  of  his  work, 
and  more  so  by  the  old  types  that  he  used.  If  he  had  known 
the  secret  of  engraving  the  punches,  he  would  have  cast  new- 
letters  and   have  given   a  better   appearance  to  his  work. 

In     these    statements    all    is    supposition    and    contradiction. 


The  Mayexce  Bible.  35 

That  which  is  certain — and  the  dates  are  there  to  prove  it — 
is  the  enormous  progress  made  and  the  productions  of  Peter 
Schoeffer.  In  1459  he  published  his  third  book,  Durandus' 
Rationale  Divinoruvi  Officioriim,  in  folio.  As  in  the  Psalter, 
Schoeffer  employed  initial  letters  printed  in  red,  which  the  rival 
workshop  could  not  do  in  the  Catliolicon,  the  rubrics  of  which 
were  to  be  painted  by  hand,  as  in  manuscripts.  A  great 
number  of   types    were    broken    at   the    beginning,  but   he   was 

l^nôbocopuFculujîîmttiac  côpletû.ctad 
curcbia3  ta  tndufVric  m  auttatc  Q)agunttj 
perlobannc  fiiO  aucct  (Semi  fcboiffber  îxr 
gcrnfbef  m  clcncû  bioeef  cwrcie5  cO  confus 
matû.  Anno  incarnacôië  t)niccA\«cccclxn- 
'JnvigiUa  anumpcôis  g-rofcvirgnns  mane. 


Fig.  14.— Colophon  of  the  Bible  printed  in  1462  by  Fust  and  Schoeffer,  which  is  the 
first  dated  Bible.  There  are  two  dif.erent  editions  with  this  signature.  The 
above  is  from  the  second  edition. 

confident  of  ultimate  success.  In  1460  he  gave  the  Constitutiones 
of  Pope  Clement  \".,  with  a  gloss  and  commentaries  by  John 
.•\ndre  ;  here  was  the  first  example  of  a  process  much  employed 
in  manuscripts,  but  of  which  the  typographical  composition  was 
very  difficult.  Again,  in  1462  a  ncio  Latin  Bible  issued  from 
his  workshop  in  tzuo  folio  volumes,  which  is  the  first  dated 
edition.  The  first  volume  has  two  hundred  and  forty-two 
folios  in  double  columns,  the  second  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
nine.      It    commences    with    an    epistle    of  St.  Jerome,    and    on 


36  The  Book. 

the    last     leaf    of    the     second     volume     is     the     colophon     here 
reproduced. 

This  book,  one  of  the  first  worthy  of  the  name,  and  which 
is  called  by  preference  the  Mayeiice  Bible,  appeared  in  one 
of  the  "most  troubled  epochs  that  the  episcopal  city  had  had 
to  go  through.  Subject  to  its  archbishops,  who  were  at  the 
head  of  all  the  lay  lords  and  fighting  men,  the  city  found 
itself  in  1462  the  prey  of  two  prelates  of  equal  title,  who 
refused  to  give  way  to  one  another  :  Diether  of  Isenburg 
and  Adolph  of  Nassau.  Adolph  surprised  Mayence  on  the 
27th  October,  1462,  pursuing  his  adversary,  who  scaled  the 
walls  with  a  rope  to  escape  quicker,  and  the  city  was  sacked 
and  pillaged  from  its  foundations.  W^hat  became,  in  the 
midst  of  this  turmoil,  of  the  obscure  persons  who  were  then 
the  printers  of  the  Bible  ?  Doubtless  their  insignificance  saved 
them  from  disaster,  but  as  it  was  long  before  peace  was 
re-established,  and  as,  on  the  other  hand,  the  entire  edition  of 
their  last  volume  could  not  be  kept  back,  we  incline  to  believe 
that  they  were  for  a  time  going  about  the  country  as  itinerant 
booksellers.  Paris  was  their  point  of  travel  already  indicated 
—  Paris,  towards  which  all  their  desires  were  directed.  The 
university  where  Peter  'Schoeffer  was  instructed  in  letters, 
and  which  truly  passed  for  the  first  in  Europe,  appeared  to 
them  an  opening  of  the  first  order.  If  we  may  believe 
Walchius  ( Decas  Fahtlarnin  Generis  Htimani  :  Strasburg,  1609, 
4to,  p.  181),  John  Fust  himself  went  to  that  city,  where  he 
put  books  on  sale  from  sixty  crowns  a  copy,  then  fifty,  then 
forty,  according  to  the  prevailing  system  in  matters  of  discount. 
Fust  was  above  all  things  a  business  man  ;  he  caused  it  to  be 
spread  about  that  he  had  a  marvellous  copyist  establishment 
beyond  the   Rhine,   and  that  he  had   come  to  dispose  of  several 


The  Mayexce  Revolvtiox.  n 

copies  ;  upon  which  the  corporate  scribes  of  the  university, 
becoming  aware  of  the  imposition,  cried  out  furiously  and 
declared  it  a  diabolical  invention.  We  may  now  take  this  tale 
of  Walchius  as  a  fable,  for  the  registers  of  Parliament,  on  being 
consulted,  rest  silent  on  the  proceedings  instituted  against  the 
"  magician  "  of  JMayence.  At  the  same  time,  we  must  not  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  the  booksellers  had  their  masters,  their 
syndicate,  if  we  may  use  the  modern  word,  charged  to  prohibit 
fraudulent  publications.  They  were  too  much  interested  in  the 
suppression  of  printed  books  to  discard  the  matter  coolly. 
Parliament   had   nothing   to  do   with    it. 

The  revolution  of  Mayence  had  by  tar  greater  results  than 
one  would  have  expected  from  these  insignificant  changes.  The 
printing  workshops,  or  at  least  the  successors  of  Gutenberg, 
began  to  be  dispersed,  and  Fust  and  Schoeffer  having  established 
a  school  of  printers  in  the  city,  their  trade  was  no  longer  a 
secret.  Deprived  of  their  liberties  by  the  new  Archbishop,  many 
of  them  expatriated  themselves.  We  shall  have  occasion  later 
to  name  some  of  these  exiles,  through  whom  the  art  of  printing 
was  spread  almost  simultaneously  throughout  the  world  :  at 
Cologne  and  at  Strasburg,  in  Italy  and  Spain,  without  reckoning 
Holland,  France,  Switzerland,  and  the  country  around  Mayence. 
We  have  before  named  the  episcopal  city  of  Bamberg  ;  it  had 
the  singular  fortune  to  be  the  second  city  to  possess  a  printing 
office,  but  it  disappeared  as  quickly  as  it  was  established,  with  its 
founder  Albert  Pfister,  without  leaving  the  least  trace  ;  we  do  not 
find  printing  there  again  till   1480,  more  than  twenty  years  later. 

Gutenberg  died  early  in  146S.  He  was  interred  in  the 
Church  of  the  Dominicans  at  Mayence,  by  the  pious  care  of  a 
friend,  who  attributed  the  invention  of  printing  to  him  on  his 
tomb. 


38  The  Book. 

We  may  begin  to  comprehend  the  influence  of  this  man 
upon  a  discovery  of  which  all  the  world  was  then  talking,  but 
amongst  the  troubles  of  the  archiépiscopal  city  the  respective 
merit  of  the  inventors  did  not  receive  their  proper  due.  Peter 
Schoeffer  and  John  Fust  were  but  little  affected  by  the  political 
crisis.  After  two  years'  suspension,  they,  always  working  and 
always  surpassing  themselves,  reappeared  with  a  Cicero,  Dc 
Officiis,  1465,  quarto.  This  time  they  freed  themselves  from 
religious  publications,  and,  still  more  extraordinary,  they  also 
employed  Greek  types. 

Such,  detached  from  the  incredible  contradictions  of  writers 
on  the  history  of  printing,  and  sketched  solely  on  its  main  lines, 
is  the  origin  of  printing  as  it  e.xists  at  this  day.  First  came 
the  image  engraved  in  relief,  which  we  need  not  go  so  far  as 
China  to  find,  like  some  of  our  predecessors.  Upon  this  image 
were  often  cut,  by  the  same  economical  process,  legends  of 
explanation  that  presented  the  idea  of  imitation  of  manuscript  ; 
and  the  xylographs  appeared  with  or  without  pictures.  Then 
from  the  correction  of  errors  in  these  books  followed  the 
discovery  of  movable  characters.  This  wooden  type,  possible 
when  it  was  used  with  a  /ration  for  printing,  would  quickly 
break  under  the  press,  the  idea  of  which  was  gained  from  the 
common  press  of  the  wine-makers.  Then  a  kind  of  type  metal 
had  to  be  found  which  could  be  cast  in  a  mould  struck  by  a 
punch.  This  punch  was  not  invented  for  that  purpose  ;  it  served 
previously  for  the  makers  of  coins  and  seals.  The  fabrication 
of  type  from  the  matrix  was  a  simple  adoption.  The  lead 
thrown  into  the  matrix  gave  the  desired  type.  Thus  the  first 
books    were     made,    of    which    we     have     briefly     related    the 

composition. 

As  to  the  proportion  of  glory   due    to  each  one  of  the  first 


Tue  Mayexce  Prlxtixc  office.  39 

printers,  it  is  necessary  to  guard  equally  against  error  on  one 
side  or  the  other.  We  have  sought  to  separate  from  the  heap 
of  publications  probable  theories  or  those  based  on  certain 
documents.  That  the  origin  of  the  Donatus,  and  the  Block-books, 
was  Dutch  it  would  be  puerile  to  deny,  because,  on  one  side, 
the  block  engravings  are  surely  of  the  school  of  Van  Eyck, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  Ulrich  Zell,  who  inspired  the  Cologne 
Chronicle  of  1499,  assigned  positively  to  Holland  the  cradle 
of  the  Donatus.  At  any  rate,  it  was  by  a  pupil  of  Gutenberg,  a 
question  we  have  discussed.  After  this  we  will  trouble  ourselves 
but  little  about  Laurent  Coster.  The  name  makes  no  difference 
in  a  matter  of  this  kind. 

As  to  Gutenberg,  we  have  not  been  able  to  go  as  far  as 
M.  E.  Dutuit,  who  in  his  Manuel  d' Estampes  (vol.  i.,  p.  236,  etc.) 
doubts  Gutenberg's  right  to  the  title  of  inventor.  It  is  sufficient 
to  state  that  in  a  letter  of  William  Fichet,  prior  of  the  Sorbonne, 
of  whom  we  shall  have  more  to  say  presently,  to  Robert  Gaguin, 
which  Dr.  Sieber  of  Basle  found  at  the  beginning  of  a  work 
entitled  Gasparini  Pergamensis  orthographice  libei%  published  in 
1470,  nearly  twenty  years  after  the  first  work  at  Mayence, 
Gutenberg  is  proclaimed  the  inventor  of  printing.  Without  any 
other,  this  testimony  of  a  savant  who  was  the  first  to  bring  the 
German  printers  to  Paris  appears  to  us  well  nigh   irrefutable. 

As  to  John  Fust  and  his  grandson  by  marriage,  Peter 
Schoeffer,  they  are  so  well  defended  by  their  works,  that  there 
is  no  more  to  say  here  ;  doubtless  grave  presumptions  arise  as 
to  the  propriety  of  their  conduct  towards  Gutenberg,  but  we  are 
not  so  presumptive  as  to  censure  them  beyond  measure.  We 
know    nothing  precise  of  the  time  or  of  the  men  either. 

Let  us  now  imagine  humble  workmen,  the  most  simple  of 
gens  dc  niestiers,    to  employ  the  F"rench  e.\pression  then  in  use, 


40  The  Book. 

shut  up  in  a  kind  of  dim  workshop,  hke  a  country  forge,  formed 
in  little  groups  of  two  or  three  persons,  one  designing  and  the 
other  cutting  the  wood,  with  a  table  near  at  hand,  on  which 
is  held  the  engraved  block  after  its  reliefs  have  been  rubbed 
with  sombre  ink,  who  afterwards,  by  means  of  the  frotton,  apply 
the  damped  paper  to  the  raised  parts  of  the  block  ;  we 
shall  then  have  without  much  stretch  of  imagination  all  the 
appurtenances  of  the  xylographie  impression.  If  we  add  to 
this  primitive  workshop  the  matrix  in  which  the  types  are  cast, 
the  box  in  which  they  are  distributed,  the  form  on  which  they 
are  arranged  to  compose  the  pages,  and  a  small  hand-press, 
with  blacker  ink  and  paper  damped  to  permit  the  greasy  ink  to 
take  better,  we  have  a  picture  of  the  printing  office  at  the  time 
of  Gutenberg,  Fust,  and  Schoeffer,  and  of  the  first  printers 
with    movable    types. 

Thus  typography  was  born  of  painting,  passing  in  its  infancy 
through  wood-cutting,  revolutionizing  ideas  and  in  some  degree 
the  world.  But  the  mighty  power  of  the  new  art  was  not  con- 
fined to  itself  ;  it  extended  the  circle  of  engraving,  which  till 
then  had  suffered  from  the  enormous  difficulties  of  reproduction. 
As  if  the  time  were  ripe  for  all  these  things,  nearly  at  the 
moment  when  the  first  printers  were  distinguishing  themselves 
by  serious  works,  a  Florentine  goldsmith  accidentally  discovered 
the  art  of  line  engraving.*  What  would  have  become  of  this 
new  process  if  the  presses  of  Gutenberg  had  not  brought  their 
powerful  assistance  to  the  printing  of  engravings .''  It  will  be 
found  then  that  printing  gave  back  to  engraving  a  hundredfold 
that  which  it  received  from  it,  and  bore  it  along  with  its  own 
rapid  advance. 

*  The  opinion    that   Finiguerra   was    the  unconscious    inventor  of  line  engravings 
is  now  abandoned. 


The  Devej.uj'mext  of  TvpuaRAi'iiv.  41 

Then  reappeared,  following  the  new  processes,  the  illustra- 
tions, in  a  measure  abandoned  by  the  Mayence  workmen  during 
the  period  of  transformation.  Our  object  is  to  speak  at 
length  of  the  Book  ornamented  and  illustrated  according  to 
the  means  of  relief  engravings;  to  demonstrate  the  influence 
of  painting,  of  sculpture,  of  art,  on  the  production  of  the  Book  ; 
and  thus  to  help  the  reader  at  the  same  time  to  understand 
the  almost  sudden  and  irresistible  development  of  typography, 
and    to  mention    its   foremost   representatives. 


CHAPTER       II. 

1462    TO     1500. 

The  Book  and  the  printers  of  the  second  generation — The  German  workmen  dispersed 
through  Europe — Caxton  and  the  introduction  of  printing  into  England — Nicholas 
Jenson  and  his  supposed  mission  to  Mayence — The  first  printing  in  Paris  ; 
William  Fichet  and  John  Heinlein — The  first  French  printers  ;  their  installation 
at  the  Sorbonne  and  their  publications — The  movement  in  France — The 
illustration  of  the  Book  commenced  in  Italy — The  Book  in  Italy  ;  engraving 
in  relief  and  metal  plates — The  Book  in  Germany  :  Cologne,  Nuremberg, 
Basle — The  Book  in  the  Low  Countries — French  schools  of  ornament  of  the 
Book  ;  Books  of  Hours  ;  booksellers  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — 
Literary  taste  in  titles  in  France  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — 
Printers'   and  booksellers'  marks — The  appearance  of  the  portrait  in  the  Book. 


ONSIDERING  the  influence  of  printing  on 
the  book  trade  of  the  fifteenth  century,  as 
referred  to  in  the  preceding  pages,  the  dealers 
in  manuscriiDts  were  not  disposed  to  give  way 
at  the  first  blow.  An  entire  class  of  work- 
men would  find  themselves  suddenly  without  employment  if  the 
new  art  succeeded  ;  these  were  the  copyists,  miserable  scribes, 
who  for  meagre  remuneration  frequented  the  shops  of  the 
merchants,  where  they  transcribed  manuscripts  by  the  year. 
Before  printing,  the  publication  of  books  was  done  in  this  way, 
and  the  booksellers  were  rather  middlemen  between  the  copyist 
and  the  buyer  than  direct  dealers  with  stock-in-trade.  It  is 
evident    that    they  would    not    have    provided    themselves    with 


D/s/'j-:A's/o.y  OF  Germax  Prixtkrs.  43 

these  costly  books  long  in  advance  without  being  sure  of 
having  a  ready  sale  for  them. 

However  small  the  remuneration  of  the  writers  was,  still 
they  clung  to  it  ;  and  they  were  naturally  the  first  to  protest 
against  the  new  invention.  At  the  same  time,  their  opposition 
and  that  of  the  booksellers  was  soon  overcome,  swamped,  and 
choked  by  the  growing  crowd  of  printers.  Then,  as  always 
happens  in  similar  cases,  in  place  of  fighting  against  the  current, 
most  of  the  former  workers  in  manuscript  followed  it.  The 
caligraphers  designed  letters  tor  engraving  in  w'ood,  the  book- 
sellers sold  the  printed  works,  and  the  illuminators  engraved  in 
relief  their  histoyres.  For  a  long  time  the  latter  continued 
to  decorate  books  with  the  ornamental  drawings  with  which 
they  had  adorned  the  manuscripts,  and  so  contributed  to  form 
the  fine  school  of  illustrators  who  have  carried  their  art  to  so 
high  a  point  since  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

As  previously  related,  the  revolution  of  Mayence  caused  the 
flight  of  a  crowd  of  artisans  who  found  their  liberty  suddenly 
compromised  by  the  conqueror.  The  want  of  money  at  this 
time  always  entailed  a  diminution  of  patronage,  and  the 
journeyman  printers  stuck  at  all  times  to  their  privileges.  It 
thus  happened  then  that  their  guild,  in  place  of  remaining  shut 
up  at  Mayence  many  years  longer,  was,  as  it  were,  turned  out, 
and  scattered  to  the  four  points  of  the  compass  by  the 
dispersion  of  its  members,  and  thus  spread  many  years  before 
the  time  that  would  otherwise  have  been  the  case.  In  point  of 
fact,  in  the  common  order  of  things,  a  workman  here  and  there 
quits  the  principal  workshop  to  try  the  world.  He  makes  his 
way  timidly,  the  unconscious  apostle  of  a  marvellous  art.  If  he 
succeeds,  he  gathers  some  pupils  around  him  ;  if  he  fails,  no  trace 
of  him   remains  ;    in   any   case    invention    propagates    itself   more 


44  The  Bouk. 

gradually.  With  printing  it  was  a  thunderclap.  No  sooner  had 
we  realized  its  appearance  than  the  exodus  commenced.  The 
greater  part  of  the  Mayence  men  bent  their  way  to  Italy  ;  to 
Subiaco,  to  Rome,  like  Arnold  Pannartz  and  Conrad  Sweynheim, 
who  printed  that  splendid  edition  of  Lactantii  Opera,  1468,  in 
which  the  Greek  quotations  were  printed  for  the  first  time,  as  well 
as  the  first  edition  of  Virgilii  Opera.  1469  (the  excessive  rarity  of 
which  is  so  great  that  a  copy  sold  lately  from  Lord  Hopetoun's 
library  for  ^590),  Ulrich  Hahn,  commonly  called  Ulricus 
Gallus,  who  was  employed  by  Cardinal  Torquemada  to  print 
his  Meditationcs  ;  to  Venice,  such  as  Johannes  de  Spira,  the 
printer  of  Plinii  Sec.  Hist.  Nat.  Libri  (1469)  ;  Vendelin  de 
Spira,  the  printer  of  Pctrarcd s  Sonetti  (1470),  a  book  of  the 
highest  degree  of  rarity  ;  Christopher  Valdarfer,  Bernard  Pictor 
{of  Augsburg),  Erhardt  Ratdolt,  Peter  Loslein  ;  to  Ferrara,  like 
Andrew  Belfort  ;  to  Foligno,  John  Neumeister  ;  Henry  Aiding 
tried  Sicily  ;  Andrew  Vyel,  of  Worms,  printed  at  Palermo. 
Lambert  Palmart  was  at  Valencia,  in  Spain,  in  1477  ;  Nicholas 
Spindeler  at  Barcelona  ;  Peter  Hagenbach  at  Toledo.  Nearer 
home  to  Mayence — that  is,  at  Cologne — we  find  Ulrich  Zell,  a 
pupil  of  Gutenberg,  who  dated  his  first  work  1466.  It  was 
Arnold  Ther  Hoernen  who  numbered  a  book  with  Arabic 
figures  ;  it  was  Koelhof,  the  printer  of  the  Cologne  Chronicle, 
who  first  used  signatures  to  indicaio  to  the  binder  the  order 
of  the  sheets;  it  was  at  Eltvil  that  Henry  Bechtermunze,  as 
we  have  already  said,  printed  his  Vocabulariuni  in  German, 
with  the  types  of  the  Catholicou  ;  at  Basle,  Berthold  Riippel, 
of  Hanau,  was  the  first  established  in  that  city,  which,  after 
Mayence,  was  destined  to  do  the  most  for  printing  ;  at  Nurem- 
berg we  find  Koberger,  who  took  nearly  the  first  rank  among 
his  contemporaries,  set  as  many  as   twenty-four  presses  to   work, 


DlSPERSIOX   OF    GERMA.X    PRI.XTFRS.  45 

and  was  named  hy  Badius  the  prince  of  printers.  The  very 
year  that  followed  the  death  of  Gutenberg,  a  body  of  monks,  the 
Brothers  of  the  Common  Life  of  Marienthal,  in  the  Rheingau, 
themselves  published  a  copy  of  the  Indulgences  granted  b)- 
Adolph  of  Nassau,  Archbishop  of  Mayence.  Before  1480, 
presses  were  everywhere  in  Germany  :  at  Prague,  Augsburg, 
Ulm,    Lubeck,    Essling,   etc. 

Jti  attn  a  -off  rgpefo  doquciigfTin^g 

€5ceU(>rio  lUtiftrifTimi  budg  <tK 
uenhg  g^Smcrro!uni  ttrmtmfi^a^ 

•ôolimmnbus  cotttrytn'pzopztjfq:^ 
cmftem  mambus  (atoie  mggnrim 
fcdpto  ac  cpircctaCplorriepgrntg 
^rnojbilebgr  bccaSbiiliqetitifrime 
trnpccffg^^mtn  Tub  flnnie^ntiiri' 
|>?'CÇCc-{)C)cÎ3q-  bic  tltimo  tn^ttfig 
tnûti'  gequocriilPo  mane  hjioiu. 
igugctglozia  p:r  fccufozum  {tax\a 


Fig.  15. — Imprint  of  Arnold  Ther  Hoernen,  printer,  of  Mayence. 

It  is,  however,  to  be  remarked  that  the  Mayence  men 
did  not  branch  out  in  Holland.  Is  it  that  they  found  there 
the  descendants  of  Laurent  Coster  firmlv  established  in  their 
workshops  ?  Must  we  admit  then  the  co-existence,  the  simul- 
taneous advance,  of  the  invention  in  Germany  and  in  the  Low- 
Countries  ?  It  is  a  problem  for  us  as  for  many  others.  Let  us 
state,  however,  that  Flemish  printers  were  established  at  Utrecht 
in    1473,  '^^  Delft,   Bruges,  Gouda,  Zwoll,  Antwerp,  and  Brussels. 


46  The  Book. 

At  Louvain  there  was  a  Conrad  of  Westphalia,  who  published 
an  undated  work,  the  type  of  which  denotes  a  very  early  age, 
but  this  seems  an   isolated   instance  of  a   German    printer    being 

:(fait  ft  ^mpnme 

inatifiot)fohçtt(mt 
bffufDis  ^    ' 


Fig.  i6. — Mark  of  Colard  Mansion, 

established  in  the  Netherlands,  and  perhaps  he  was  only  a  simple 
dealer.  La  Serna-Santander  does  not  think  it  unlikely  that 
Conrad  was  the  father  of  John  of  Westphalia,  whose  principal 
works,     Cicero    de  claris  oratorihus,    1475,    llj^gilit    Of  era,    1476, 

Jf«;  ««  xi  fcntôtsp  xi  tBa«  fb*^  ^im^ 
Co  cn»t)  m  fon)  ^tuou«  fcw^n» 
^ii^  fb«éo  gate  %i^  pKx»  a«t>j>  au^iotcs 
Q(tnb2  6abp  fe  our  o^Ç^  fÇof»  6>  Ç^i)  f€^ 
%fti(  offé  tBe  fe  (cffé  Çi«  fxà  Ç^»)  pje^e 
Out  ope  Çx^  (Çè  tS«^t«  fo*  56  afiPé 
^tt  prcéfi  qtio^  ^  noiB  ^ir  moo^  gou  6e(n0p6 

Fig.  17. — Specimen  of  Caxton's  type,  Ironi  tlie  Cuiiterbiii'y  Talcs,  I-176. 

Jtvvenalis  et  persii  satyrec  and  Johannis  de  Milis  repertoriiiiu  in 
jure  canonico  (sic),  both  of  1475,   were  all  printed  at  Louvain. 

Colard  Mansion,  who  came  from  France  and  learned  the  art 
of  printing  either  in  Mayence  or  Cologne,  was  printing  at  Bruges 


William  Caxtox. 


47 


about  1476.  His  first  work  was  Le  Jardin  de  Devotion,  and 
his  type  is  an  imitation  of  the  peculiar  French  type  called 
Grosse  bâtarde.  He  was  also  employed  by  William  Caxton, 
who  had  been  for  some  years  trading  as  a  merchant  in  the 
Low  Countries,  to  print  the  Recuyell  of  the  Histories  of  Ti'oy, 
by   Raoul    Le   Fevre,   which   Caxton  had  translated  into   English 


AVv^^U^'.A^U^^^^xx'.'.kkkxvkUkkk^vUk' 


Fig.   iS. — Woodcut  from  Caxton's"G(n;;c. ii;/(/  Plcnc  oj  the  Clu^it. 

at  the  command  of  Queen  Margaret.  This  was  issued  in  1474, 
and  was  the  first  book  printed  in  the  English  language.  In 
1475  or  1476  Caxton  returned  to  England  with  a  fount  of  types, 
which  he  had  employed  Mansion  to  cut  and  cast  for  him,  and 
established  himself  as  a  printer  in  the  precincts  of  Westminster 
Abbey.      In  1477  he  produced  the  first  book  printed  in  England, 


48 


THE  Book. 


The  Dictes  and  Sayijigs  of  the  Philosophers  (a  copy  sold  lately 
from  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch's  library  for  £6yo),  followed  by  a 
large  number  of  important  works,  amongst  which  we  may 
mention  :  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales  (no  date)  ;  Moral  Proverbs, 
1478  ;  Cordyoile,  1479  ;  Chronicles,  ist  éd.,  1480  (a  copy  sold  for 
^470  at  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch's  sale);  Myrrour  of  the  World, 
1480  ;  Tully,  Of  Old  Age  {a  copy  from  Lord  Crawford's  library 
sold   lately    for  ^320)  ;   Godefrey   of  Boulogne,    148 1  ;    Higden's 


Fig.  19. — The  Knight,  a  woodcut  I'rom  Ca.xton's  Gnitie  and  Plajc  of  the  C/icssc. 

Polycronyco7t,  1482  ;  Pilgrimage, — Festival, — Confessto, — Golden 
Legend,  1483;  Knight  of  the  Tour, — ALsop, — Order  of  Chivalry, 
1484;  King  Art Jiur, — Charles, — Paris  and  Vienne,  14S5  ;  Good 
Manners,  1487;  Directorium,  1489;  Fayts,  1490.  For  further 
particulars  about  England's  greatest  printer,  we  must  refer  the 
reader  to  the  excellent  work  by  Mr.  W.  Blades,  The  Life  and 
Typography  of  W.  Caxton,    1863. 

William    Caxton    produced    over    sixty    works,  the    colophons 


William  Caxtox. 


49 


of  many  of  them  revealing  much  of  the  personal  life  and 
character  of  the  first  English  printer.  Some  of  them  were 
ornamented  with  woodcuts  ;  we  reproduce  two  from  the 
Game  and  Playc  of  the  Cliessc,  printed  in  folio  about  1474. 
The  first  represents  a  king  and  another  person  playing  at 
chess  ;  the  smaller  cut  is  a  representation  of  the  knight,  who 
is  thus  described  in  Caxton's  own  words:  "The  knyght  ought 
to  be  maad  al  armed   upon   an  hors  in  suche  wise  that  he  have 


Fig.  20. — Music,  a  woodcut  from  Caxton's  Alhruiir  of  the  World, 


an  helme  on  his  heed  and  a  spere  in  his  right  hond,  and 
coverid  with  his  shelde,  a  swerde  and  a  mace  on  his  left  syde, 
clad  with  an  halberke  and  plates  tofore  his  breste,  legge  harnoys 
on  his  legges,  spores  on  his  heelis,  on  hys  handes  hys  gaunte- 
lettes,  hys  hors  wel  broken  and  taught,  and  apte  to  bataylle, 
and  coveryd  with  hys  armes."  The  other  Caxton  block  which 
we  reproduce  is  a  representation  of  music  from  the  Myrrour  of 
the    World,   a  thin    folio   volume   of   one   hundred   leaves  printed 

4 


50 


The  Book. 


in  1480,  with  thirty-eight  woodcuts.  These  specimens  will 
serve  to  show  the  rudimentary  character  of  English  wood 
engraving  in  the  fifteenth  century.  No  authentic  portrait  of 
Caxton  is  known,  and  the  one  that  is  generally  accepted  is 
really  a  portrait  of  an    Italian    poet,   Burchiello,   taken   from    an 


Fig.  21. ^William  Caxton,  fiom  Rev.  J.  Lewis's  Life. 

octavo  edition  of  his  work  on  Tuscan  poetry,  printed  1554; 
this  was  copied  by  Faithorne  for  Sir  Hans  Sloane  as  the 
portrait  of  Caxton,  and  was  reproduced  by  Ames  in  his 
Typographical  Antiquities,  1749.  Lewis  prefixed  the  portrait 
here  given  to  \\\s  Life  of  Mayster  Willyam   Caxton,    1737,  which 


H'):VA-1'.\"   DE     WORDK.  5 1 

is  a  copy  of  Faithorne's  drawing  with  some  alterations.  John 
Lettou  and  William  INIachlinia,  both  contemporaries  of  Caxton, 
issued  various  statutes  and  other  legal  works. 

Wynkyn     de    Worde.     a    native    of    Lorraine,    and    one    of 


Fig.  22.— Fj'shing  with  an  Angle. 


Caxton's    earliest    co-operators,    was    the  first  who    used    Roman- 
type    in     England.       Four     hundred     books    were    printed    by 
him,    among    them    \'oragine's   Legenda   aiirea,    with    woodcuts, 
1498  ;  Huoti  de  Bordeaux  (from  which  Shakespeare  derived  his 


52 


THE  Book. 


Midsummer  Night's  Dreani),  and,  perhaps  his  best  known, 
Treatyses  perteynynge  to  Hawkynge  mid  Huiityngc,  Fysyhing  with 
an  Angle,  by  Dame  Juliana  Barnes,  or  Berners,  1496,  from 
which  we  reproduce  here  the  man  with  the  angle.  A  copy 
of  this  book  sold  lately  for  ^120. 


Richard       Pynson,      who     died      in      1529 


or 


1531. 


was 


Henry  VIII.'s  first  printer.  There  are  more  than  two  hundred 
of  his  works  still  extant,  mostly  in  Old  English  and  pro- 
fusely illustrated,  such  as  the  Descrypcyon  of  Englonde,  fol., 
and    he   also    was    among    the    first    who    used    Roman    type    in 


tig.  23. — Mark  of  Wynkyn  de  Worde. 

England.  From  Westminster  the  art  spread  in  England  to 
O.xford,  where  Theodoricus  Rood,  from  Cologne,  printed  an 
Exposicio  Sancti  Jeronimi  in  1478;  and  to  St.  Albans  in  1480 
by  a  printer  who  has  never  been  identified,  and  who  produced 
the  famous  Chronicle  of  England,  fol.,  1483,  and  Boke  of  St. 
Albans,   fol.,  i486. 

Wynkyn  de  Worde  used  no  less  than  nine  different  marks, 
all  of  them  bearing  Caxton's  initials, — evidencing  the  regard 
of  the  pupil  for  his  master  ;  the  mark  which  we  reproduce 
is  one  of  rare  occurrence.  Richard  Pynson  began  in  1493. 
and      continued      well     into     the     sixteenth     century,     and    was 


Richard  Pvxsox. 


S3 


one  of  the  first  of  the  "  privileged  "  printers,  authorized  to 
issue  the  legal  and  parliamentary  publications.  One  of  the 
marks  used  by  him  is  here  reproduced.  Julian  Notary  began  to 
print  in  1498,  and  established  an  office  in  London  in  conjunction 
with  Jean  Barbier  1499.  There  are  twenty-three  books  traced 
to  Notary's  office.  The  only  style  of  illustration  used  by  any  of 
these  early  printers  was  the  woodcut,  and  of  this  there  was  very 
little    beyond    the    title-page    and    printer's    mark.     The    artistic 


Fig.  24. — Mark  of  Richard  Pynson. 


form    of   the    Book    originated    on    the    Continent,    but    England 
was  not  slow  to  adopt  it  and  fashion   it  to  her  own  ends. 

The  invasion,  we  see,  had  been  most  rapid.  In  less  thcUi 
fifteen  years  every  important  city  had  followed  the  movement, 
and  was  ready  to  establish  printing  offices.  If  we  may  credit 
a  certain  doubtful  document,  Charles  W\.  had  on  the  3rd 
of  October,  1458,  sent  to  Mayence  one  of  the  best  medal 
engravers  of  the  Mint  of  Tours  to  study  the  process  of  which 
marvels   were  spoken.      "The   3rd    of   October,    1458,    the    King 


54  The  Book. 

having  learned  that  Messire  Guthenberg,  living  at  Mayence,  in 
the  country  of  Germany,  a  skilful  man  in  cutting  and  making 
letters  with  a  punch,  had  brought  to  light  the  invention  of 
printing  by  punches  and  types,  desirous  of  inquiring  into  such 
a  treasure,  the  King  has  commanded  the  directors  of  his  mints 
to  nominate  persons  well  instructed  in  the  said  cutting  and 
to  send  them  secretly  to  the  said  place  to  inform  themselves 
of  the  said  mode  and  invention,  to  understand  and  learn 
the  art  of  the  same,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  said  Lord  King. 
Thereupon  was  pointed  out  to  the  said  King  and  was  under- 
taken by  Nicholas  Jenson,  who  took  the  said  journey  to  bring 
intelligence  of  the  said  art  and  of  the  execution  of  it  in  the 
said  kingdom,  which  first  has  made  known  the  said  art  of 
impression  to  the  said  kingdom  of  France"  {^Bibliothèque  de 
V Arsenal,   Hf  467,  pp.  410,  411). 

Nicholas  Jenson  on  his  return  met  with  a  cool  reception 
from  Louis  XL,  who  did  not  care  to  propagate  the  works 
of  his  father.  It  may  be  supposed  that  this  coolness  was 
the  cause  of  his  expatriating  himself  and  retiring  to  a  place 
where  he  could  find  freer  scope  for  the  exercise  of  his  industry. 
Ten  years  after  the  above  mission  we  find  him  established  at 
Venice,  his  art  of  engraver  of  letters  joined  to  that  of  printer. 
His  Prceparatio  Evangelica  by  Eusebius,  translated  by  Trape- 
zuntius,  and  \ns  Justinian,  were  composed  in  1470,  with  such  mar- 
vellous and  clear  Roman  types  that  from  that  day  the  best  typo- 
graphers have  imitated  his  founts.  In  spite  of  its  success,  he 
did  not  confine  himself  to  these  letters,  but  he  made  also  Gothic 
ones,   in  which  by  preference  he  printed  theological  books. 

Notwithstanding  the  attempts  of  Jenson  in  the  name  of  the 
King  of  France — that  is,  if  these  attempts  ever  took  place  in  the 
manner  indicated  above — the  invention  was  not  known  to  have 


Nicholas  Jkxsux.  55 

commended  itself  to  the  powerful  University  of  Paris.  It  was 
very  difficult  to  introduce  innovations  into  that  learned  body, 
unless  one  had  some  powerful  influence  in  the  university. 
We  have  seen  John  Fust,  compelled  suddenly  to  retake  the 
road  to  Germany,  in  a  fair  way  to  find  himself  taxed  with 
sorcery, — at    that    time    no    slight     matter.       For    unauthorised 

barbarum  ac  feruin  îegibys  adcultioréuitx.ufum. 
traducftû  in  forma  prouirida;rcclegiti 

..FINIS. 

Hiftonas  ueteres  peregrinaqj  geffa  reuofuo 
luftmus.lege  me:fum.  trogus  ipfe  breuis* 

Me  gallus  ueneca  lenfon  Nicolaus  in  urbe 
Formauic;Mauro  principe  Chnftophorc^ 

IVSTINIHISTORICICLARISSIMIIN 
TROGI  POMPEII  HISTORIAS  LIBER 
XLIJII.  FELICITER  EXPLICIT, 

.M.CCCCLXX. 

Fig.  25. — Imprint   of  Nicholas  Jenson  to  a  Justinian,  printed  in  1470  at  Venice.      This 
type  has  prevailed  up  to  now. 

persons  the  sale  of  unlicensed  books  had  had  most  unhappy 
consequences,  and   Parliament  was  not  able  to  interfere. 

Thus  ten  years  had  passed  since  the  journey  of  Jenson, 
and  ten  or  twelve  since  the  first  manifestations  of  typography 
at  Mayence,  and  yet  the  diabolical  discovery  had  not  found 
admittance  to  the  Sorbonne.  What  was  still  more  extraordinary, 
a    Cologne    printer    issued    about    1472    a    small    folio    in   Gothic 


56  The  Book. 

type,  thirty-one  long  lines  to  a  page,  which  was  a  work  written  in 
French.  The  Histoires  de  Troy  es  of  Raoul  Le  Fevre,  chaplain 
to  the  dukes  of  Burgundy,  first  found  a  publisher  in  Germany, 
and  soon  after  another  in  England,  before  a  single  press  was 
definitely  installed   at    Paris. 

As  we  have  said  of  Peter  Schoeffer,  German  students  came 
in  numbers  to  the  university,  where  they  pursued  their  studies, 
and  frequently  remained  later  as  professors.  It  has  been  found 
that  in  145S  a  former  student  of  the  University  of  Leipzig  named 
John  Heinlein,  a  native  of  Stein,  in  the  diocese  of  Spire, 
entered  as  director  of  the  college  of  Burgundy,  from  whence 
he  passed  to  the  Sorbonne  in  1462,  the  year  of  the  troubles 
in  Mayence.  After  the  mania  for  latinising  names  so  common 
at  that  time,  he  called  himself  Lapidanus,  from  the  name  of 
his  native  place,  which  means  Stone  in  German.  Heinlein  met 
in  Paris  a  Savoyard,  William  Fichet,  born  in  1433  at  Petit 
Bornand,  who  becam.e  an  Associate  of  the  Sorbonne  about  1461, 
and  finally  Rector,  as  he  himself  was  in  146S.  These  two  men, 
bound  together  with  great  friendship,  and  possessed  of  that  instinct 
inherent  to  men  of  elevated  studies,  guessed  at  once  what 
enormous  help  printing  would  bring  to  bear  on  their  work. 
Besides,  it  grieved  them  to  see  through  the  whole  of  France, 
especially  in  Touraine,  German  canvassers  carrying  about  their 
goods  in  bales  under  cover  of  other  commerce,  a  practice  from 
which  the  most  grave  inconveniences  might  result.  It  occurred 
to  them  that  to  prevent  fraud  they  would  themselves  create  a 
printing  establishment;  but  if  they  deliberated  on  it,  it  must 
have  been  done  secretly,  for  the  registers  of  the  Sorbonne 
are  silent  on  their   enterprise. 

If  Fichet  conceived  the  idea,  it  may  be  believed  that 
Heinlein,    owing      to     his     German      connections,    put    it     into 


GKKIXC,    FREV/SUKGER,    A.\J)   Kraxtz.  57 

execution.  M.  Philippe  thinks  th;it  he  was  formerly  at  Basle. 
In  all  probability  it  was  from  that  city  he  tried  to  obtain  his 
workmen.  It  was  in  1466,  after  six  years  had  elapsed  since 
the  printers  were  dispersed  and  fled  from  Mayence.  At  all 
events,  it  was  from  Basle  that  Ulrich  Gering,  Michael  Frey- 
burger,  and  Martin  Krantz,  printers  recommended  to  the  two 
Sorbonnists,  started,  and  in  due  course  arrived  in  Paris.  Of 
these  three  men,  who  were  the  first  to  establish  a  printing 
office  on  the  French  side  of  the  Rhine,  Ulrich  Gering  was  a 
student  as  well  as  a  printer,  and  so  was  Freyburger,  a  native 
of  Colmar.  As  for  Krantz,  he  probably  was  a  letter-founder, 
and  the  only  real   workman  of  the  three  companions. 

It  is  often  regretted  that  there  are  no  authentic  portraits 
of  these  men,  nor  of  Gutenberg,  Fust,  and  Schoeffer,  to 
transmit  their  features  to  us.  As  regards  Gutenberg,  every 
one  will  recall  the  fur  cap  and  the  tight  breeches  of 
Thorwaldsen's  statue  at  Mayence,  but  there  is  really  no 
genuine  portrait  of  Gutenberg,  e.xcept  the  traditional  features 
of  the  inventor  reproduced  in  the  previous  chapter.  As 
to  Gering,  M.  Philippe,  in  his  Histoire  de  l'Origine  de 
r Imprimerie  à  Paris,  publishes  a  grotesque  figure  muffled  in 
the  ruff  of  the  sixteenth  century,  after  a  picture  preserved  at 
Lucerne,   but  it   is  not   remarkable  as  a  work  oi   art. 

The  printing  office  of  the  three  Germans  was  set  up  within 
the  walls  of  the  Sorbonne — in  cedibus  Sorbonnicis — in  1469. 
There  they  set  to  work  at  once, — no  difficult  matter,  seeing 
that  at  that  time  a  printing  establishment  consisted  simply  of  a 
room,  none  too  light,  a  table,  and  press,  and  some  forms.  Krantz  ■ 
doubtless  cast  the  types  chosen  by  the  Sorbonnists;  for  there 
were  then  two  sorts  of  letters  in  use,  the  German  Gothic  and 
the    Roman.     They    kept   to   the  Roman,  as   being    more  round 


58  The  Bouk. 

and  clear  ;  and  when  once  the  matrices  were  obtained  and  their 
type   was  cast,    they  entered  on  their  task  with  ardour. 

The    tendencies    of    Fichet    and    Heinlein     had     no    leanino; 

ISafprim  pcrgamenfis  ctanOfimi  onto' 
nf/Cpidola^  Uber  Focliciter  incipit/ 

J Audco  pluuimitm  ac  Isetor  in 
[ca  tc  fcntentia  efTe.'ut  nihil  a 
J  me  ficui  fine  caufa  putef.]|^go 
|eni  ctfi  multoç^  uercbac  fufpi;^ 
tionef  |Cf  a  me  fcmproniu  anriquu  fami'v 
Uarc  mcG  rciici^bâ-came  cû  ad  inacdibi/ 
le  animi  tui  fapictià  iudiciû  mcû  refj^rc''/ 
bà-  nihil  eratijre  id  a  tc  improbart  pu' 
tavcm-Nam  œm  âc  mcof  nôffef  moucT-'d 
lUius  narurâ  ti  ignoravcs-'n  dubitabâ  od 
de  hoc  fàcfto  meo  iudicaturus  cftcs*  îslou 
igit  haf  ad  tc  fcabo  Irâf^quo  nouam.  tibt 
de  vcbuf  a  me  gcflif  opinioncm  facia.ïed 
lit  fi  quando  aliter  homlef  nolltof  de  me 
fctivc  intelligcs-  ta  q  probe  caufam  mea 
noftiydcfcnf  lonê  mca  fufcipiaf'Mcec  fi  io 
cevLS»'  nihil  efi;  quo  ultevius  cflïcium  tu'' 
um  icquiram*  Valc  ; 

Fig.  26. — Letters  of  Gasparin  of  Bei  game.     First  page  of  the  first 
book  printed  at  Paris,  in  1470. 

towards  transcendental  theology,  but  rather  towards  the  literature 
of  the  ancients  and  contemporary  rhetorical  works.  Besides,  it 
may  be  said,  considering  that  men  are  far  from  perfect,  Fichet 
counted  on  making  the  authorised  presses  serve  his  own  purpose 


\ 


GEKIXG,    FREVBURGKK,    AM)    KRAXT/..  59 

We  find  him  publishing  a  treatise  on  Rhetoric  in  quarto  in 
1 47 1,  and  always  engaged  in  supervising  the  work  confided 
to  his  artists.  The  partners  commenced  with  a  large  volume  of 
Letters  of  Gasparin  of  Bergamo,  which  was  set  up  in  quarto  with 
the  Roman  type,  the  character  of  which  had  then  been  accepted. 
At  the  end  of  the  work,  the  production  of  which  took  much 
time — possibly  a  year — the  three   printers    placed   a  quatrain    in 


dJoetix  ïptaçi  Caf parmi  f'lni^* 

(I.Vt  fol  lumen'fic  docftclnam  fundif  i.n  orbem 

Mtifarum  nutciXyuegia  pactfiuf  ; 
(fMincpropc  dluînam,tu  qua  gcrmanla  nouit 

A.  Item  fccibcndi'Tufcipe  promerita; 
#0*vimos  cccc  librof-quos  b^ec  Lnduftcia  f'lnxit 

francoi-um  in  tcraf«a:dibuf  atc^  tuif  • 
^,icbael  VcfAlcicufyMartmufci  magifin 

Mof  impreffcrunt-ac  facient  aliof; 

Fig.   27. — Colophon    in    distichs  in   the  Letters  of  Gasparin  of  Bergamo,  first 
book  printed  at  Paris  at  the  office  of  the  Sorbonne. 

Latin   distichs,  which   is  at   once  a  statement  of  identity  and   a 
promise  for  the  future  : — 

"  Primos  ecce  libros  quos  hroc  iiidustria  finxit 
Francorum  in  terris  asdibus  atque  tuis  ; 
Michael,   Udalricus,  Martinusque  magister 
Hos  impresserunt,  ac  facient  alios.'' 

If  we  try  to  apportion  to  each  of  the  three  printers  his 
share  in  the  production  of  the  book,  it  may  be  supposed  that 
the  intellectual  part  of  the  composition  and  the  correction  fell 
to  Michael  Freyburger  and  to  Ulrich  Gering,  while  the  heavier 
work    of    founding,     placing    in    forms,    and    press    work    fell    to 


6o 


The  Book. 


Krantz.  This  essay,  satisfactory  as  it  appeared,  was  far  from 
perfect.  The  first  Parisian  printers  had  multiplied  abbrevia- 
tions and  irregular  contractions,  and  enormous  difficulties  and 
inevitable  faults  ensued.  Further,  either  they  had  more  than 
one     punch,    or    the    matrix    got     deformed,    for    the    characters 


y^ 


"De  qu'tncp  vhet02iâs  elemëtif  artem  exttin^ 
Jecus  compaehendcndbus  omnetn^  ' 


Rt'ifidofe  dicendi  rado^qus  Udf-» 
fimf  patet^uincg  rebus  ad  funr 
mum  confiC(£-6acultatC(fme^o6Eido  • 
lateriayCt  inftcumenco»  Nam  to' 


2;  » 


Idem  vebus'qui  veliquis  airibus  dcledlanc 
I  ic^lirrntcs  ftbi  defmiunt; 
'\^%3^^ LTAS(qu5e  cfl:  ccrtayfadltS/CÎ  pzo 
'^^'^  '   pta  dtcendi  potcfta's)tribus  rebus  coftat-'artC; 
imitadoneyec  exerdtatione; 
^ES  cfl:  p2ÇCcpdo'qua£  dat  ccrtam  uUmyt*' 
tionemcg  dtcendi; 

'\  MITATIO  efl:.'qua  impelUmur  cû  diU' 
genti  cadonCyqueyquidyet  quâtam  imitemur' 
-  ut  aliquo^  fi miles  in  djcêdo  ualcamus  effe; 
^J^\'^ERC1TAT10  eft  affiduus  ufusycofuc- 
^^^  tudcq;  dicendi; 

J^^NIS  eft  qus  fit  difténe  perfuafto; 
C|f  FICIVM  eft-'appfite  dicere  ad  perfua 
fioncm-  Quod  opus  partibus  fuis  quincp  con' 
funiitMSslwcr'doneydifpofidoncyelocudoncy 

Fig.  28. — Rhétorique  of  Fichet,  printed  at  Paris  in   1471.     Tlie 
marginals  are  drawn  by  hand. 


frequently  differ.  In  spite  ot  these  objections,  we  must  com- 
mend them  for  having  used,  before  all  others,  the  tr  and  a\ 
which  were  uniformly  written  e  in  the  manuscripts,  thus  giving 
rise  to  errors  without  number.  Their  punctuation  was  the 
comma,   semicolon,   and   the  full  stop. 


FICIIET  AM)    HKLXI.EIX.  6i 

Fichet  and  Heinlein  had  become  the  modest  librarians  of 
the  Sorbonne,  and  this  new  employment  gave  them  greater 
facilities  for  superintendence.  The  printing  office  did  not 
remain  inactive.  It  issued  successively  the  OrthograpJiy  of 
Gasparin  of  Bergamo,  the  Letters  of  Phalaris,  two  books  of 
.(^neas  Sylvius,  the  Conspiracy  of  Catiline  of  Sallust,  the 
Epitome  of  Titus  Liviiis  of  Florus,  and  finally  the  Rhetorics  of 
William  Fichet,  which,  if  we  may  credit  a  letter  addressed  to 
Bessarion,  was  finished  in  1471.  Afterwards  they  produced  the 
Letters  of  Bessarion,  the  Eles^antia  Latincc  Lino-ucr  of  Valla 
(the  first  folio  volume  issued  from  the  Sorbonne  presses),  and 
many  others;  to  wit,  thirteen  volumes  in  1470-71  and  seventeen 
in    1472. 

At  the  end  of  1 742  the  workshop  was  somewhat  broken 
up,  Fichet  having  left  for  Rome  and  Heinlein  having  gone  to 
preach  in  Germany.  The  three  printers  had  sufficiently  shown 
by  their  works  that  they  were  in  earnest  ;  in  addition,  they 
had  from  the  first  presented  gratuitously  copies  of  their  works 
to  the  nobles,  who,  being  accustomed  to  pay  highly  for 
manuscripts,  did  not  fail  to  note  the  difference.  The 
Associates  then  resolved  to  quit  the  Sorbonne  and  to 
found  an  establishment  for  themselves,  their  patrons  being 
no  longer  there  to  sustain  them  in  case  of  failure  ;  and 
if  we  judge  by  the  sacrifice  they  made  in  giving  up  their 
presses  and  types  they  were  not  without  anxiety  on  their 
new  venture. 

Their  oldest  dated  books,  the  Jllaniiaic  Con/essoruiu  1473 
(March)  and  the  Manipulus  Cnratorniu  of  Montrocher  1437 
(May),  were  also  the  first  that  they  printed  in  their  new  quarters, 
at  the  sign  of  the  "  Golden  Sun  "  in  the  Rue  St.  Jacques.  They 
remained  there  as  partners  up   to  the  year    1477,    when   Gering 


62  The  Book. 

alone  signed  at  the  "  Golden  Sun."  Afterwards  he  took  in 
associates,  George  Mainyal  in  1480  and  Berthold  Rembold  in 
1494,  who  lived  with  him  in  the  Rue  de  la  Sorbonne,  where  he 
established  himself  on  leaving  the  Rue  St.  Jacques.  Ulrich  Gering 
died  on  the  23rd  of  August,  15 10,  after  a  half-century  of  work. 

The  movement  inaugurated  by  the  Sorbonne  was  promptly 
followed.  German  workmen  opened  their  printing  offices 
nearly  everywhere  in  France  ;  then  the  French  themselves 
took  the  same  course.  At  Lyons  in  1472  a  Frenchman  was 
established,  the  same  at  Angers,  Caen,  Metz,  Troyes,  Besançon, 
and  Salins.  But  in  the  central  provinces  we  find  Henry  Mayer 
at  Toulouse,  John  Neumeister  at  Albi  ;  in  the  east,  Metlinger 
at  Dijon  ;  and  Michael  Wensler,  of  Basle,  at  Macon,  without 
counting  others,  between    1470  and    14S0. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  an  epoch  of  greater  efforts.  The 
Lyons  printers  used  ornamental  letters,  from  which  engravings 
in  the  Book  were  developed.  Since  the  block  books,  illustrations 
had  been  neglected,  as  the  means  were  wanting  to  distribute 
the  plates  here  and  there  in  the  form  ;  Schoeffer  still  employed 
initial   letters    in   metal    very   like   vignettes,    like  many  others. 

If  we  search  for  the  precise  epoch  in  which  illustration 
appeared  in  the  history  of  the  Book,  we  shall  perhaps  have 
to  go  back  to  the  time  of  Albert  Pfister,  printer  of  Bamberg, 
who  issued  in  1461  an  edition  of  the  Fables  of  Ulrich  Boner 
with  a  hundred  and  one  figures  on  wood,  and  the  first  book 
printed  in  the  German  language.  This  may  be  said  to  be  the 
unconscious  combination  of  xylography  with  typography,  a  kind 
of  transformation  of  old  elements  to  new  things  without  any 
importance,  for  art  counted  for  nothing  in  this  adaptation. 

Up  to  this  time  Germany  had  not,  in  its  school  of  painters 
or    illuminators,  men    capable  of  giving   a    personal    impulse    to 


Book  Illustratiox  i.\  Italy. 


63 


ornamentation.  In  the  German  editions  of  the  block  books 
the  influence  of  Van  Eyck  was  remarkable,  and  the  German 
printers  who  went  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  Italy  fell  into 
the  midst  of  a  circle  admirably  prepared  to  impart  their  ideas 
to  them.  It  appears  that  the  first  book  printed  in  Italy  with 
woodcuts  in  the  text  and  with  an  ascertained  date  is  the  work 
of  a  German  established  at  Rome,  namely  Ulrich  Hahn,  in  1467. 
If  we  may  believe  an  account  in  the  Annuaire  du  Bibliophile, — 
which,  being  without  citation  of  authority,  we  quote  for  what  it 
is  worth — but  is  no  doubt  a  fable,  as  J  oh.   Winterberger   1482   is 


Fig.  29. — Mark  of  Guerbin,  printer  .it  Geneva,   14S2. 

acknowledged  as  the  first  Vienna  Printer, — Ulrich  Hahn  established 
a  press  at  Vienna  about  1462,  but  was  driven  thence  by  the 
publication  of  a  pamphlet  against  the  burgomaster  of  the  city. 
Under  these  unfortunate  circumstances,  he  was  attracted  to 
Rome  by  the  famous  Torquemada,  who  confided  to  him  the 
impression  of  his  work  the  Medilationes,  which  he  wanted  to 
adorn  with  illustrations.  Hahn  was  himself  an  engraver,  as  were 
also  most  of  his  confreres  at  that  time — that  is,  he  cut  in  relief 
the  design  already  drawn  on  wood  so  that  it  could  be  inter- 
calated in  the  te.xt  like  a  large  letter.  Passavant  relates  that 
the  designs  of  the   Medilationes  were    taken    from    compositions 


64 


The  Book. 


of  Fra  Angelico,  who  died  in  1455.  It  is  now  impossible 
to  verify  this  fact,  so  much  did  the  German  artist  preserve 
the  crude  manner  of  his  country  in  wort:ing  these  plates. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  the  book,  the  printing  of  which  was 
finished  on  St.  Sylvester's  Day,  1467,  is  the  first  known  with 
engravings  printed   in    Italy,  and  only  three  copies    of  it  exist: 


(^fnrrifn 


^syVl 


ûsAii/j 


Pig.  30. — Wood  engraving  in  Matteo  Pasti,  for  Valturius'  D:  Re  Militari 
(Verona  :  1472). 

one  at  Vienna,   one  at   Nuremberg,   and  one  in    Lord    Spencer's 
library  ;  it  is    printed  in  Gothic  type  in  folio. 

Illustration  found  a  true  artist  at  Verona,  in  Matteo  Pasti, 
who  furnished  designs  for  a  volume  on  military  art  by  Valturius, 
printed  in  Roman  characters  in  folio,  at  the  expense  of  John  of 
Verona,  and  dedicated  to  Sigismond  Pandolfi.  Fasti's  eighty- 
two  wood  engravings  are  simple  outlines,  cleverly  executed, 
of  which    we    here    reproduce    one  of    the    principal  —an    archer 


Early  Book  Ii.i.vstratiox.  65 

shooting  at  a  butt.  Published  in  1472,  the  volume  of 
Valturius  thus  followed  very  soon  after  the  ]\Ieditationes, 
but  the  engravings  enable  us  already  to  see  how  the  Italian 
process,  consisting  mostly  of  lines  without  shadows,  differed 
from  the  Dutch  and  German.  One  thing  to  be  remarked 
here  is  also  the  purity  of  the  design,  as  compared  with  a 
certain  irregularity  of  the  engraving  ;  we  feel  in  these  figures 
Italian  art  at  its  height,  despite  the  somewhat  coarse  translation 
of  the  wood-engraver. 

At  Venice  the  German  discoveries  had  borne  fruit.  At  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  fifty  years  after  the  invention  of 
typography,  the  printing  offices  and  booksellers'  shops  were 
counted  by  hundreds.  It  was  in  this  city  that  for  the  first  time 
a  title  with  frontispiece  giving  the  contents,  the  place,  the  date, 
and  the  name  of  the  printer,  was  given  to  the  Book.  We  give 
here  this  ornamental  title,  placed  before  a  Calendario  of  John 
de  Monteregio,  printed  by  Pictor,  Loslein,  and  Ratdolt  in  1476, 
folio. 

The  German  Erhardt  Ratdolt  was  probably  the  promoter 
of  these  innovations.  He  soon  afterwards  published  the  first 
geometrical  book  with  figures,  the  Elements  of  Euclid,  1482, 
folio  ;  in  the  same  year  he  produced  the  Poelicon  Astronomicuvt 
of  Hyginus,  previously  printed  at  Ferrara,  in  which  he  displayed 
illustrations  on  wood  of  excellent  design,  but  heavily  and 
comparatively  unskilfully  engraved.  Yet  the  art  of  the  Book 
could  not  remain  inferior  in  this  city,  where  so  many  artists 
were  piling  up  marvels.  Nicholas  Jenson,  the  emigrant  from 
PVance,  of  whom  we  have  spoken  above,  had,  in  imitation  of 
Italian  manuscripts,  introduced  that  Roman  letter,  the  primitive 
type  of  which  has  come  down  to  our  time  pretty  well  untouched. 
At   the  death  of  Jenson  in    1481,    his  materials  passed  into    the 

5 


66 


The  Book. 


hands  of  Andrew  d'Asola,  called  Andrea  Torresani,  who  did 
not  neglect  the  good  traditions  of  his  master,  and  who  produced 
before  anyone  else  a  book  bearing  signatures,  catchwords,  and 
pagination  {^Letters  of  St.  Jerovie,  14SS).  Torresani  was  the 
father-in-law  of  Aldus  Manutius,  who  was  to  be  for  ever  illus- 
trious in  the  art  of  printing  at  Venice,  and  to  conduct  his  art 
to  the  highest  pitch  of  perfection. 


fT^-<::£^-- 


Vcftacpiai.iOk^ni  parte  e  un  lilTrodoio 
Non  fijpuj  precioUgcinmïmai 
Dil  kalendario  .  ct?c  trjcucole  alii 

Con  gran  facilitj  :  ma  gran  lauorc 

Quinumefo'aureo  ;  e  tutti  i  fegni  fuoro 
Ddcripudilgran  polodaogniUr 
OiiandotiTole  :  c  luna  cclipli  fai 
Qu-incctcnetcrcçea  ft-oibcx-oio 
in  uninfrantitufaicjualborafi.i        • 
Qlial  fata  lanno  :  giomo  ;  tempo  icmexe-* 
Ci-'Ctutu  ponn  Ton  daftrologis 
loar.hc  dc  monte  rcgio  queflp  fcxc 
Cogliertal  huctoacionon  grauefii 
In  treue tempo:  ccon  pocbipcnexc- 
0>i  ccfnccotaHpex; 
Scampaoinu  I  nomidi imprelTon 
Son  qui  da  bAlTo  di  toHicalon 

Vcncajs.  14.  r*. , 


Bcmarriiispiclordî  Aug-jire   |f?^ 


Pctrus  luHci 
Eabartlo^iJfdol.  dc  Aogi 


He  Laiiçcncen    p^^^^^\ 
>l  dc  KmpxAU    ^^2J^  -t^ 


Fig.  31. — Title-page  of  the  Cahndario^  first  ornamental  title  known. 
Printed  in  1476  at  Venice. 

But  if  decoration  by  means  of  relief  blocks  found  a  favour- 
able reception  in  Italy,  and,  above  all,  a  group  of  artists  capable 
of  carrying  it  to  success,  there  were  at  the  same  time  other 
experiments  which  originated  in  a  different  direction.  The 
discovery  of  Maso  Finiguerra  gave  to  the  art  a  new  process 
of  reproduction,  and  printing  presses  were  now  able  to  make 
the  working  of  engraved  plates  possible  and  practicable.  In 
order  to  make  that   which  follows  comprehensible,  we  must  enter 


ILLUSTRAT/OX   ().\   METAL    PLATES.  6/ 

into  a  few  technical  details,  the  whole  subject  having 
been  so  admirably  and  fully  treated  by  MM.  Delaborde  and 
Duplessis. 

In  the  engraved  wood  block,  as  in  the  printing  type,  it  is  a 
projection  in  the  wood  or  metal  which,  being  inked  and  passed 
under  a  press,  leaves  on  paper  its  lines  in  black.  Naturally  then 
the  intercalation  of  an  engraving  of  this  kind  in  typographical 
composition  is  made  without  difficulty,  as  the  impression  of  both 
is  taken  at  one  pull.  On  the  other  hand,  a  line  engraving  is 
obtained  from  incised  lines  on  a  plate  of  copper  ;  that  is,  an 
instrument  called  a  burin  traces  the  lines,  which  are  filled  with 
greasy  ink.  These  incised  lines  are  only  inked.  The  surface 
of  the  plate  is  then  cleaned  off  to  avoid  smudging.  The  sheet 
of  paper  destined  for  the  impression  has  then  to  be  made  very 
pliable  and  pulpy,  so  that  at  the  striking  of  the  press  it  runs, 
so  to  speak,  to  find  the  ink  in  the  lines  and  to  reproduce 
them.  It  is  therefore  impossible  to  make  simultaneous  im- 
pressions   from     both     raised    and    incised    plates. 

This  kind  of  reproduction,  however,  which,  contrary  to 
that  from  wood,  allowed  of  half-tints  or  shading,  attracted  in 
good  time  the  workers  in  the  production  of  the  Book.  It 
appeared  to  them  possible  to  reconcile  the  two  printings  by  the 
successive  passage  of  the  same  sheet  of  paper  through  the  press, 
to  receive  at  first  the  impression  from  the  type,  and  afterwards 
from  the  ink  in  the  incisions  of  the  copper  plate.  The  first 
manifestation  of  this  new  method  of  illustration  was  made  at 
Florence,  the  home  of  line  engraving,  by  Nicholas  di  Lorenzo 
in  1477,  for  the  work  of  Antonio  Bettini,  of  Siena,  called  El 
Monte  Santo  di  Dio.  Here  the  artists  were  not  the  first 
in  the  field.  If  we  accept  the  common  opinion,  Baccio  Baklini 
borrowed    from     Sandro     Botticelli    the    subjects    of    his    plates. 


68 


THE    BOOK. 


In  any  case,  Italian  engraving  seeks  its  source  in  Pollajuolo, 
Botticelli,  and  Baldini.  It  is  not  the  simple  work  of  a  niellist,  but 
it  had  not  yet  reached  its  perfect  expression  either  in  the  work 


<^i^^ 


Fig.  32. — Engraving  on  metal  bj-  Baccio  Baldini  for  El  Monte  Santo  di  Dio,  in  I-1.77- 


or  in  the  impression  ;  the  illustrations  of  the  Moiitc  Santo  are 
proof  of  this,  as  are  also  those  of  the  Dante,  by  Baldini,  in  14S1, 
for  the  same  Nicholas  di  Lorenzo.  From  this  we  reproduce 
the  Misers. 


Early  Illvstratiox  ix  Italy. 


69 


At  this  epoch  engravings  by  the  burin  were  taken  with  a 
pale  ink,  the  composition  of  which  is  not  anything  Hke  the  fine 
black  ink  of  Schoeffer  or  of  the  old  Italian  printers.  And 
besides  in  most  cases  the  proofs  were  obtained  by  rubbing  [au 
frottoti)  like  the  ancient  block  books,  an  eminently  defective 
process.  The  press  was  not  yet  well  adapted  to  the  delicate 
work  of  line  engraving,  and  the  workmen,  who  did  not  insert 
the  plates  until  after  the  text  was  printed,  preferred  not  to  risk 
the  loss  of  their  sheets  by  the  use  of  inappropriate  presses. 
These,   with  the  insignificant  attempts  made  by  the  Germans  in 


Fig. 


-Metal  engraving  by  Baccio  Baldini  from  ths  Dante  of  1481. 


1479,*  are  the  beginnings  of  the  process  of  line  engraving  in 
the  ornamentation  of  the  Book.  In  fact,  the  process  failed  to 
take  the  position  which  was  expected  of  it,  owing  to  the  incon- 
venient mode  of  working.  Relief  engraving  still  made  great 
advances  ;  with  it  the  sheets  used  for  the  impression  did  not 
require  working  more  than  once  to  produce  the  illustrations  with 
the  text  ;  in  a  word,  the  labour  was  not  so  great.  A  century 
elapsed  before  line  engraving  completely  dethroned  the  vignette 

*  Breznariuin    ccclesie     HirbiJ>olensis  :     Kt,    Dold.,    i-j^g,    fo'.io,    copperplate 
engravings. 


•JO  The  Book. 

on  wood,  and  a  century  in  which  the  latter  attained  its 
height,  and  showed  what  able  artisans  could  make  of  a  process 
apparently  the  least  flexible. 

Not  to  leave  Italy,  which  had  the  honour  of  making  the 
book  with  engraved  illustrations  known  to  the  world,  we  pass 
over  some  years,  during  which  Arnold  Bucking  brought  out  at 
Rome  a  Cosmographia  of  Ptolemy,  1478,  with  incised  plates,  which 
is  the  first  printed  atlas  that  was  produced,  while  as  regards 
ordinary  publications  there  appeared  in  all  parts  classical  and 
Italian  works,  such  as  Cicero,  Virgil,  Tacitus,  Pliny,  Eusebius, 
among  the  ancients,  and  Dante,  Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  etc.,  as 
regards  the  modern  authors.  Among  the  editions  of  Dante,  we 
may  cite  that  of  Peter  of  Cremona,  dated  iSth  of  November, 
1491  (Fig.  35),  with  one  wood-engraving  to  each  canto,  of  which 
the  earlier  ones  are  after  Botticelli,  and  perhaps  even  drawn 
by  him  directly  on  the  wood.  Passavant  believes  these  figures 
to  be  cut  in  relief  in  the  metal.  On  some  of  the  plates  there 
is  a  signature,  a  Gothic  .ft,  the  signification  of  which  leaves  a 
free  field  for  conjecture,  and  perhaps  for  error.  There  is  also 
another  edition  containing  twenty  plates  printed,  1481,  ten  years 
before  the  woodcut  edition,  which  is  extremely  rare  ;  one  in  the 
Hamilton  Palace  Library  sold  in  May  1884  for  /380  ;  the  Royal 
Library  of  Berlin  recently  agreed  to  pay  ^1,200  for  a  proof  set 
of  these  plates. 

As  we  shall  see  later  apropos  of  German  vignettes  of  the 
same  period,  the  characteristic  feature  of  Italian  engraving  was 
sobriety,  the  complete  absence  of  useless  work,  and  the  great 
simplicity  of  the  human  figure.  This  special  manner  will  be 
found  in  the  famous  first  edition  of  Francesco  Colonna's  Hypnero- 
tomachia  Poliphili.  printed  in  1499  by  Aldus,  which  has  been 
frequently  reproduced,   and  even   copied  sixty  years  after  its  first 


Ear/.v  I/j.rsTA'.ir/o.v  /.v  Italy. 


71 


publication  by  a  French  printer,  a  rare  occurrence  in  the  book 
trade.  On  account  of  its  exquisite  woodcuts  this  wori<  has 
always  been  a  great  favourite  with  booi<-collectors,  especially 
with  artists,  notwithstanding  its  continual  increase  in  price. 
Mr.   Beckford's  copy  sold  for  ^130. 

The    Italian    illustrators,    whether    they    operated    simply    on 
wood,   or,   as  some  writers  have  it,    engraved   their  cuts   in   relief 


Fig.  34. — Plate  from  the  Hypnerotomachia  Puliphili,  printed  by  Aldus 
Manutius,  in  1499. 


on  metal,  always  brought  their  figures  conspicuously  forward, 
by  making  the  surroundings  more  accentuated  and  often  dotted 
over,  thus  forming  a  dark  background.  This  was  also  the 
ordinary  process  in  their  ornaments,  among  the  most  interesting 
of  which  are  the  borders  of  the  plates  to  an  edition  of  Dante 
by  Bonino  de  Bonini,  Brescia,  14S7,  of  which  a  specimen  is 
here  reproduced. 

If    we     return    from     Italy,     which    then    took     the    lead,    to 


The  Book. 


Germany,  we  find  at  Augsburg  about  the  year  i  -i  70  a  school 
of  Forrnschneiders,  whose  obscure  workshops  were  of  no  great 
advantage  to  the  booksellers.  These  ill-advised  artists  went 
even  further  Apparently  furious  at  seeing  printing  so  widely 
spread  as  to  render  their  bad  woodcuts  difficult  to  pass  off 
as  original    designs,   they    united    in   a   body    to    forbid    Giinther 


^  ^  "^  -^r 


TfCRCVMO 


^   *    *   *    ^1 

f^  \f^.  ^K"  y^ 
\J^  /(s  "3^  -yfr  ^ 


^'§'  35' — The  planet  Mercury  and  the  city  of  Rome,  engraving  from 
the  Dii'iua  Coiiiec^ia  (Venice,  1491). 

Zainer  and  Schussler  to  put  engravings  into  their  books. 
They  must  nevertheless  have  come  to  an  ultimate  arrange- 
ment, for  Zainer  printed  in  1477  a  BooA  ou  Chess  by  Jacopo 
da  Cessole,  with  vignettes.  He  was  besides  one  of  the  few 
German  printers  who  employed  Roman  characters  in  place 
of  the  Gothic  of  Peter  Schoeffer.  At  Cologne  in  1474  Arnold 
Ther  Hoernen  published  a  work   entitled  Fasciculus  Tcmporiim^ 


EARI.V  ll.l.rSTRATlOX    I x   Germa.w. 


n 


with  small  illustrations  engraved  on  wood.  A  Bible  without 
date  contained  most  interesting  illustrations.  As  to  the 
celebrated  Todtcntantz,  or  Dance  of  Deatli,  published  about 
1485,    it  contains   forty-one  plates   in  relief  of  the  most  ordinary 


Fig.  36. — Plate  from  Bonino  de  Bonini's  Dan'.c,  at  Brescia,  in  1487. 

kind  and  the  least  personal  mark,  the  same  as  in  the 
Chronicle  of  Cologne  of  1499,  of  which  the  figures,  though  less 
German  and  less  distorted,  do  not  come  up  to  the  more 
German,  but   more   artistic   Nuremberg   books. 


74 


THE    BUOK. 


At  Nuremberg,  Antony  Koberger,  called  by  Badius  the 
prince  of  booksellers,  directed  an  immense  establishment, 
employing    more    than    a    hundred    workmen,    without    counting 


Fig.  37. — The  creation  of  woman,  plate  from  tlie  Sclial:bchiiltci,  engraved 
after  Michael  Wohlgemuth. 

smaller  houses  at  Basle  and  Lyons.  At  Basle  Johannes 
Froben,  born  1460,  at  Hammelburg  in  Franconia,  established 
a    printing    press    in     1491,    and   printed    chiefly    the    works    of 


Early  I/j.cstratio.x  /x  Ckrmanv.  75 

Erasmus  and  the  Latin  Fathers,  particularly  the  fine  edition 
of  St.  Augustin.  To  many  of  his  titles  and  borders  Hans 
Holbein  lent  his  hand.  Koberger  was  a  capable  and  a  for- 
tunate man.  He  had  at  first  put  forth  a  Bible  very  indifferently 
illustrated  with  the  cuts  of  the  Cologne  Bible,  but  he  had  some- 
thing better  in  view  than  copying  others.  Michael  Wohlgemuth, 
born  at  Nuremberg  in  1434,  was  then  in  the  full  vigour  of  his 
talent.  To  his  school  the  young  Albert  Durer  came  to  study  ; 
and  as  his  business  was  to  draw  on  wood  as  well  as  to  engrave 
on  copper  and  paint  on  panel,  Koberger  was  attracted  to  him, 
and  engaged  him  to  make  a  set  of  illustrations  for  a  book. 
The  projected  work  was  the  Schatzbehalier,  a  sort  of  ascetic  com- 
pilation, deficient  both  in  interest  and  in  arrangement.  Michael 
Wohlgemuth  set  to  work  ;  and,  thanks  to  the  ability  of  his 
engravers,  of  whom  William  Pleydenwurff  was  probably  one, 
Koberger  was  able  to  issue  the  book  in  the  course  of  1491 
in  three  hundred  and  fifty-two  folios  of  two  columns.  Without 
being  perfection,  the  designs  of  Wohlgemuth,  very  German, 
very  striking,  present  the  vigour  and  merit  of  the  future 
school  of  Nuremberg.  The  figure  is  no  longer  a  simple  line, 
in  the  manner  of  the  block  books,  but  a  combination  of  inter- 
laced cuttings,  intended  to  imitate  shades.  Such  are  those 
representing  The  Creation  of  Eve  ■A.wà  The  Daughter  of  Jcphthah 
reproduced  here.  If  we  were  to  look  for  harmony  between  the 
text  and  engravings  of  this  curious  work,  we  should  find  grace 
and  gaiety  laid  aside  ;  on  the  other  hand,  we  should  perceive  a 
freedom  and  boldness  that  would  fascinate  and  permit  us  to 
appreciate  at  their  value  the  Nuremberg  artists  and  Koberger, 
the  printer.  In  fact,  the  German  artists  are  here  more 
individual,  each  one  taken  by  himself,  than  the  Italian  illus- 
trators could  be,   condemned    as    thev  were    to    the    hierarchical 


76 


The  Book. 


commonplace  and  to  a  certain  form  of  forced  idealism  into 
which  the  art  of  Italy  was  dragged  little  by  little.  The  German 
painters,  naturalists  and    believers,  presented   their  heroes  in  the 


Fig.  38. — The  daughter  of  Jeplithah,  plate  taken  from  the  Scluilzbelialtcr, 
engraved  after  Michael  Wohlgemuth. 

image  of  that  robust  nature  that  was  before  their  eyes.  It  was 
in  this  rude  and  unpolished  spirit  that  Michael  Wohlgemuth 
illustrated    the    Schatzbehaltcr  ;  he  also  designed  the  illustrations 


Early  Illustration  /x  Germany.  jj 

for  the  Nu7'eniberg  Chronicle  of  Dr.    Hartman    Schedel,   printed 
by   Koberger  in    1493   (Fig.  39). 

With  Diirer,  at  the  latter  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
Book  was  no  more  than  a  pretext  for  engravings.  Thausing, 
his  biographer,  says  that  the  great  artist  felt  the  necessity  of 
designing  an  Apocalypse  at  Rome  at  the  time  when  Luther  was 
premeditating  his  religious  revolution  in  face  of  the  worldly 
splendours  of  the  pontifical  court.  The  Apocalypse,  published 
in    151 1    in    Latin,    with     Gothic    characters,    was    an    album  of 


ftntfabmirioimUiK 


Fig.  39. — Title  of  the  N itrcniberg  Chronklf,  printed  by 
A.  Koberger,  1493.     Fol. 

fifteen  large  wood  engravings.  The  Four  Horsemen  is  the 
best  of  these  plates,  and  the  boldest  ;  but  in  this  gross  fancy,  in 
these  poor  halting  old  hacks,  the  fantastic  and  grand  idea  which 
the  artist  meant  to  convey  can  hardly  be  seen.  It  may  be  said 
the  genius  of  Diirer  was  little  adapted  to  vignettes,  so  large 
they  were,  and  did  not  easily  lend  itself  to  the  exigencies  of 
a  spun-out  subject.  The  title  of  his  Apocalypse  is  of  its  kind 
a  curious  example  of  German  genius,  but,  in  spite  of  its  vigour, 
it  does  not  please  like  an   Italian  headpiece  or  like  a   French  or 


78 


The  Book. 


Flemish  frontispiece.      The  other   works   of    Diirer  published   in 
the  fifteenth  century,  The  Life  of  the    V^irgin  and    The  Passion, 


^^K^^^&  (mm  i'^m/ 


Fig.  40. — Title  cl'tlie  Ajoinlypsc,  by  Albert  Diirer,  printed  in  149S. 
First  edition  without  text. 


were    also    sets    of    prints    to    which    the    text    was    afterwards 
added 


The  ''Ship  of  Fools." 


79 


For  the  rest  of  his  illustrations  Diirer  belongs  to  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  we  shall  have  occasion  to  recur  to  his 
works.  At  present  it  remains  to  mention  a  curious  work  printed 
at   Basle  by   Bergman  de  Olpe  in  1497,  which  appears  to  be  the 


ëmlriferalHauijî. 


IHarragonirf  ^fr  rtionia  mini 

fatis  laudata  iNauis:  per  Sebafti'anû  Brant:  vcmacufovoii 
gariq;  fermoneSC  rhythino^cûdtoçemortaliumfatuicati's 
femitas  effugere  cupiétm  direfti'one/  fpeculo  /cômodocp  8C 
falutc  :  procpinertisignâuf<pftulricigppetuainfamia/exe« 
crationc/Siconfutationc/nupfabricata:  Atqjiampridem 
per  lacobum  Locher/cognomêto  Philomiifum  :  Siieuû  '.in 
îatînû  tradii(fla  cloquiû  :  ôiperSebaftianû  Braat  :  dcuuo 
fcdulooj  reuiXa;foelici  cxorditurprincipto. 

Nihil  fine  caufa. 
Xo«de.01p6 

Fig.  41. — Title  of  Sebastian  Brandt's  Ship  of  Fools,  printed  in 
1497  at  Basle  by  Bergman  de  Olpe. 


first  comic  conception  of  fifteenth  century  artists  :  the  A^avis 
Shdtifera,  or  Ship  of  Fools  of  Sebastian  Brandt.  This  work 
of  the  school  of  Basle  lacks  neither  originality  nor  boldness. 
At   the    time  when    it   was    published    its   success   was    immen.se, 


8o 


The  Book. 


from  the  strange  tricks  of  its  clowns,  with  fools'  caps,  with 
which  every  page  was  adorned.  Alas  !  the  best  things  fell 
under  the  satire  of  these  jesters,  even  the  Book  and  the  Book 
lover,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  sarcasms  which  the  personage 
here  reproduced  volleys  against  useless  publications.  "  I  have 
the  first  place  among  fools.  ...  I  possess  heaps  of  volumes 
that  I  rarely  open.  If  I  read  them,  I  forget  them,  and  I  am 
no    wiser,"      Brunet    saw     in    these    humorous    caricatures    more 


Fig.  42. — The  Bibliomaniac.     Engraving  from  the  Ship  of  Fouls. 

art  than  is  really  to  be  found  in  them.  Their  value  is  owing 
more  to  their  spirit  and  humour  than  to  any  other  artistic 
merit.  Even  the  engraving  is  singularly  fitted  to  the  subject, 
with  its  saving  cutting,  and  its  close,  hair-like  te.xture.  The 
designer  was  certainly  not  a  Holbein,  but  he  is  no  longer  the 
primitive  artisan  of  the  first  German  plates,  and  his  "go"  is 
not  displeasing. 

We  have  before   spoken,  apropos  of  engraving  by  the  burin 


Tue  Book  i.\  the  Low  Countries.  8i 

in  Italy,  of  the  small  share  of  Germany  in  the  production  of 
illustration  by  that  means,  and  we  do  not  therefore  see  any  real 
and  serious  attempt  in  the  two  little  coats  of  arms  in  copperplate 
in  the  Missale  Herbipolensc,  printed  in   1479. 

The  Flemish  had  not  taken  any  great  flight  in  the  midst 
of  this  almost  European  movement.  The  school  of  Burgundy, 
whose  influence  was  felt  in  all  the  surrounding  countries,  had 
lost  its  authority  in  consequence  of  the  progress  achieved  at 
Mayence.  Without  doubt  the  great  P'lemish  artists  were  still 
there,  but  they  were  honoured  painters,  and  their  inclination  did 
not  prompt  them  to  work  for  the  booksellers  beyond  making 
them  offers  of  service.  The  first  of  these,  officially  esta- 
blished in  Flanders,  were  two  Germans,  as  we  have  mentioned 
before,  John  of  Westphalia  and  John  Veldener,  of  Wiirtzburg, 
who  established  themselves  in  the  University  of  Louvain  in 
1473,  three  years  after  the  first  Paris  printers.  John  Veldener 
edited  the  Fasciculus  Tetnporum,  a  book  which  had  enormous 
success  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the  first  book  in  which 
borders  and  ornaments  occur,  which  later  on,  because  these 
borders  consisted  of  vine  branches,  were  called  in  F"rance 
Vignettes. 

At  Haarlem,  in  spite  of  the  Block-Books  attributed  to 
Laurent  Coster,  illustration  was  backward.  About  1485,  a  Dutch 
translation  of  the  Malheurs  de  Troye  of  Le  Fevre  was  issued. 
This  French  book  was  published  at  Cologne  before  France 
possessed  the  smallest  typographical  workshop.  At  Bruges 
Colard  Mansion  illuminated  the  cuts  of  his  Metamorphoses  of 
Ovid  in  1484.  Simple  engraving  appeared  to  him  too  far 
remote  from  manuscripts,  the  vogue  of  which  had  not  yet  passed 
away.  At  Zwoll,  Peter  van  Os,  from  Breda,  used  the  xylo- 
graphie   plates  of  the  Biblia    Patiperuui,   while  the  master  à  la 

6    . 


82  The  Book. 

navette,  John  of  Yollehoe,  an  artist  in .  the  best  sense  of  the 
word,  was  ornamenting  certain  popular  publications  with  his 
designs.  At  Utrecht  Veldener  came  from  Louvain  to  establish 
a  workshop.  He  published  for  the  second  time  a  Fasciculus 
in  1480  ;  he  created,  as  we  stated,  a  style  of  decoration  with 
flowers  and  leaves,  which  shortly  after  developed  into  the 
trade  of  Rahmenschneiders.  Antwerp  had  attracted  Matthias 
van  der  Goes,  Gerard  de  Leeu  from  Gouda,  and  he  produced 
the  romance  of  Belle  Vienne  and  the  first  Dutch  translation 
of  y^sops  Fables,  1485.  Schiedam  had  an  inventive  engraver 
who  illustrated  an  edition  of  the  Chevalier  Délibéré  of  Oliver 
de  la  Marche,  in  folio,  with  Gothic  letters,  after  1483,  as  we 
read  in  the  colophon  : — - 

"  Cet  traittie  fut  parfait  l'an  mil 
Quatre  cens  quatre  vings  et  trois 
Ainsi  que  sur  la  fin  d'avril 
Que  l'yver  est  en  son  exil, 
Et  que  l'esté  fait  ses  explois. 
Au  bien  soit  pris  en  tous  endrois 
De  ceulx  à  qui  il  est  offert 
Par  celui  qui  TaHt  a  souffert, 
La  Marche." 

The  French  language,  bright  and  harmonious,  thus  found 
hospitality  in  other  countries.  For  many  examples  of  French 
books  published  abroad,  we  cannot  cite  one  German  work 
printed  in  France.  Spreading  from  the  north  to  the  south, 
typography  had  from  1490  its  two  principal  centres  at  Paris 
and  Lyons.  After  the  success  of  the  three  Germans  at  the 
Sorbonne,  events  took  their  own  course.  In  1474  Peter  Caesaris 
and  John  Stol,  two  students  who  had  been  instructed  by  Gering 
and  Krantz,  founded  the  second  establishment  in  Paris,  at  the 
sign  of  the  "  Soufflet  Vert  ;"  and  they  printed  classical  works. 
Ten    years    later  appeared    Antoine  Vérard,   Simon   Vostre,    and 


Frexch  Schools  of  Illustratiox.  83 

PigOLichet,  the  first  of  whom  gave  to  French  bookselling  an 
impulse  that  it  has  not  since  lost  ;  but  before  them  Pasquier- 
Bonhomme  published  his  Grandes  Chroniques  in  1476,  three 
volumes  folio,  the  oldest  book  printed  at  Paris  in  French  with 
a  date. 

The  French  school  of  illustration  was  at  its  most  flourishing 
point  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  but  solely  in  miniature 
and  ornamentation  by  the  brush.  The  charming  figures  of  the 
manuscripts  had  at  this  time  a  Flemish  and  naturalistic  ten- 
dency. The  most  celebrated  of  the  great  artists  in  manuscripts, 
Jean  Foucquet,  could  not  conceal  the  source  of  his  talent  nor 
the  influence  of  the  Van  Eyck  school,  yet  the  touch  remained 
distinctly  personal.  He  had  travelled,  and  was  not  confined  to 
the  art  circles  of  a  single  city,  as  were  so  many  of  the  earliest 
painters  of  Flanders.  He  had  gone  through  Italy,  and  from 
thence  he  brought  with  him  architectural  subjects  for  his  curious 
designs  in  the  Heures  of  Etienne  Chevalier,  now  at  Frankfort, 
a  precious  fragment  of  which  is  preserved  in  the  National 
Library  of  Paris.  Side  by  side  with  this  undoubted  master, 
whose  works  are  happily  known,  lived  a  more  modest  artist, 
Jean  Perréal,  called  Jean  de  Paris,  painter  to  Charles  VHI., 
Louis  XII.,    and  Anne  of   Brittany. 

In  joining  with  these  two  masters,  Foucquet  and  Perréal,  one 
who  serves  as  a  transition  between  them,  Jean  Bourdichon,  designer 
to  the  kings  of  France  from  Louis  XI.  to  Francis  I.,  we  at  once 
obtain  a  not  despicable  assemblage  of  vital  forces.  Without 
doubt  these  men  could  not  enter  in  the  same  line  either  with 
the  admirable  school  of  Flanders,  or  the  Germans  of  Nurem- 
berg, or  the  masters  of  Italy  ;  but,  moderate  as  we  may 
deem  their  merit,  they  did  their  work  well,  painting  miniatures, 
colouring   coats    of  arms,   rendering   to   the   kings,   their  masters, 


84 


The  Buok. 


all  the  little  duties  of  devoted  servants  without  pretension,  and 
leading  the  way,  according  to  their  means,  for  the  great  artistic 
movement  in  France  of  the  seventeenth  century.  That  these  men, 
leaving  the  brush  for  the  pencil,  devoted  themselves  to  design 
illustrations  on  wood  is  undeniable.  It  is  said  that  one  of  them 
followed  Charles  VIII.  to  the  Italian  wars,  and  probably  sketched 
the    battles   of  the   campaign   as    they    took   place.      Now    in    the 


Fig.  43. — A  medical  man  of  the  tifteenth  century,  from  La  Mcr  des  Histoires. 
Printed  oy  Le  Rouge.     Paris,  14S8. 

books  published  at  this  epoch  in  France  we  meet  with  vignettes 
which  so  very  nearly  approach  miniatures,  that  we  can  easily 
recognise  in  them  French  taste  and  finish.  Such  are,  for 
example,  the  illustrations  of  the  Mer  des  Histoires,  printed  by 
Le  Rouge  in  14SS,  where  the  delicacy  of  design  is  matched  in 
some  parts  with  extraordinary  dexterity  in  engraving.  Never- 
theless, others  leave  something  to  be  desired  ;  they  maim  the 
best    subjects    by  their  unskilful    line  and    their  awkwardness   of 


Frexch  School  of  Iu.l'str.it/ox. 


85 


handling  (Fig.  43).  Were  not  these  engravers  on  wood  printers 
themselves  :  the  Commins,  Guyot  Marchants,  Pierre  Lecarrons, 
Jean  Trepperels,  and  others  ?  We  are  tempted  to  see  in 
certain  shapeless  work  the  hasty  and  careless  labour  of  an  artist 
hurried  by  the  press.  As  mentioned  above,  considering  the 
part  taken  by  the  booksellers  in  the  making  of  the  plates,  our 
supposition  does  not  appear  inadmissible  in  itself. 


Fig.  44.  —  Mark  of  Philip   Pigouchct,  French  printer  and  wood 
engraver  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Printing  had  been  established  about  twenty  years  in  Paris 
when  Philip  Pigouchet,  printer  and  engraver  on  wood,  began 
to  exercise  his  trade  for  himself  or  on  account  of  other  pub- 
lishers. Formerly  bookseller  in  the  University,  he  transported 
his  presses  to  the  Rue  de  la  Harpe,  and  took  for  his  mark  the 
curious  figure  here  reproduced  (Fig.  44).  At  this  moment  a 
true  shopkeeper,  Simon  Vostre  conceived  the  idea  of  launch- 
ing forth  Books  of  Hours,   until    then  disdained  in  France,   and 


86 


The  Book. 


of  publishing  them  in  fine  editions  with  figures,  borders,  orna- 
ments, large  separate  plates,  and  all  the  resources  of  typography. 
The  attempts  made  at  Venice  and  Naples  between  1473  and 
1476  warranted  the  enterprise.  Entering  into  partnership  with 
Pigouchet,  the  two  were  able  on  the  17th  of  April,  1488,  to 
publish  the  Heures  a  I' Usaigc  de  Ronie,  octavo,  with  varied 
ornaments  and  figures.  The  operation  having  succeeded  beyond 
their    hopes,  thanks    to    the    combination  of   the  subjects  of  the 


Fig.  45. — Mark  of  Jean  Dupré,  printer  at  Lyons. 

borders,  subjects  that  could  be  turned  about  in  all  manner 
of  ways  so  as  to  obtain  the  greatest  variety,  Simon  \"ostre 
applied  to  the  work,  and  ordered  new  cuts  to  augment  the 
number  of  his  decorations.  Passavants  idea  is  commonly 
received,  that  the  engraving  was  done  in  relief  on  metal, 
because  the  line  in  it  is  very  fine,  the  background  stippled, 
and  the  borders  without  scratches.  Wood  could  not  have 
resisted  the  force  of  the  impression  ;  the  reliefs  would  have  been 
crushed,    the    borders    rubbed    and    badly  adjusted.       In    all    the 


Books  of  Hours. 


87 


successive  editions  hard  work  and  wear  are  not  remarked,  and 
we  are  forced  to  admit  the  use  of  a  harder  material  than  the 
pear  or  box-wood    of  ordinary    blocks. 


Fi;.-,  46. — Mark  of  Simon  Voslrc,  printer  at  Paris,  1501. 


Fig,  47. — Ornament  of 
Simon  Vostre. 


Fig.  48. — Ornament  of 
Simon  Vostre. 


^ 

1 

^ 

^ 

l> 

^ 

f 

3** 

«^ 

Pii 

i 

m 

Fig.  49. —  Ornament  of 
Simon  Vostre. 


According  to  his  wants,  Simon  Vostre  designed  new  series 
of  ornaments.  Among  them  were  histories  of  the  saints,  biblical 
figures,  even    caricatures  directed  against   Churchmen,  after   the 


88 


The  Book. 


manner  of  the  old  sculptors,  who  thought  that  sin  was  rendered 
more  horrible  in  the  garb  of  a  monk. 

"  Honorés  sont  saiges  et  sots, 
Augustins,  carmes  et  bigots," 

says    the    legend.       Then  there  were  the    Dance   of  Dcatli    and 


m 


iirnot) toffie  pcfratilrtit3:(iquatc  no») 
fcrs  imquifatc  mcû-f  i6f  cc  nunc  i»)  puf- 
uetc  î>r>jmio:{i  fi  mane  mc  qncfictie  no  fu6 
"  fianj.tg: .  £.tt^a  ^  tebêptoi  mcue  'Smit 
; ii^nouiflimo  bic  fte  tf  tta  futtcctume  fti 
Éiiçranicmca^ibcBo  beurt)  fafuatoic 
mcû.'J'.Ciuc^ifutue  fil  c^oipfc  ^^  no  afi' 
(t  ocufi  mci  ofpccftici  futjEt  î  canw.  £.11. 
H^^^bct  aiflrt)  mc(î  "Sitemcc  :  bitnittiî 
l^^abuctfun^mccfoquiiimeuti;.  So'. 
quat  it)  amarifubinc  aie  mce.bic3  bco.ICo 
fi  mc  conbcnatc.  Jnbica  miffii:cuc  me  rta 
mOicce.  îfiimqiiib  6oniî  ti6i  'Sibctur  fi  ra^ 
filniccte  (J  oppximae  mc  opue  manufl  tua 
rurt):^î  conf  ifiii  ipioiii  abiuuce';!  12unquib 
Of  ufi  f  amci  ti6i  funtiaut  firut^ibtt  Çomo 
(I  hî  'Bibcemr'iautiguib  finiebiee Commie 
bic6  fui  (z  anni  tui  (if  ut  Çumana  j'unt  (e»ij^ 
poia-f  Jfflt  qucroe  iniquitatê  mcÂ  ef  per  fa? 
tun)  mcfl /ftuteti6.^tff  lae  g;  nit^if  ipiii 
fcf  en»»)  f  il  fit  nemo  qui  be  manu  tua  pop 
fit  ctucrc.  ÎÇt.  Siui  faîatum  tcfuff  itafîi  a 
monumcfo  fctibilïlu  eie  biie  bona  requic 
(t  for  il  mbufscntie.*.  Siui  "Setutue  ee  lu 
bieacc  "Bmoe  (Z  moxtuoe  ji  fecuf  il  pec  i^nc 
%\\  CIS  bomme  bona  tcquie»t).(if .  riLiii. 


"1?  I 


m 


îA"? 


I 


r"'g-  S°- — Border  in  four  separate  blocks  in  the  Heures  à  l'Usaige  de  Rome,  bj-  Pigoucliet, 
for  Simon  Vostre,  in  14SS.     Small  figures  from  the  Dance  of  Death. 

sibyls,  allying  sacred  with  profane,  even  the  trades,  all  forming 
a  medley  of  little  figures  in  the  margins,  in  the  borders, 
nestled  among  acanthus  leaves,  distorted  men,  fantastic  animals, 
and    saints    piously    praying.     The    Middle  Ages  live    again    in 


BOOK'S    OF   HOURS. 


89 


these    bright    and    charming    books,    so    French  in    their  origin, 
yet   withal  imbued  with  good  sense  and  a  tolerant  spirit. 


fjSSn , 


.^g^^^ 


:.y  X  V  r T  i-'v  i-T  j-v  'rr^r^  n  ry  a'T  it  1  '^-rro 


0mac\^n  mca  aperies  [1^^,# 
et«  0(3  meu  annunciabit  ifer^ 


~\ 


J^^gE 


à 
b 


Fig.  51. — Plate  copied  from  Schongauer's  Carrying  of  the  Cross, 
taken  from  the  //cures  of  Simon  Vostre. 

The  Book  rose  under  Simon  Vostre  and  Philip  I'igouchet 
to  the  culminating  point  of  ornamentation.  Here  design  and 
engraving    are    at    their    proper    value    and    sustain    each    other. 


90 


The  Book. 


It  is  not  only  the  stippled  backgrounds  of  the  borders  that 
please  the  eye,  but  the  whole  effect  is  such  as  to  compel  the 
question,  Who  was  this  unknown  designer,  this  painter  of  bold 
conceptions,  whose    work    is    so    complete  ?     However,    some    of 


Fig.  52.— The  Death  of  the  Virgin,  plate  taken  from  the 
Heures  of  Simon  Vostre,  printed  in  1488.  The  border 
is  separate. 


the  large  full-page  illustrations  have  not  an  originality  ot  their 
own,  nor  the  French  touch  of  the  borders.  Thus  the  plate  of 
the  Passion  here  reproduced  (Fig.  51)  is  inspired  line  for  line  by 
the  German,  Martin  Schongauer.  Are  we  to  suppose  then  that 
already  the    trade    with    cliches    from    the    original    blocks    was 


BOOK'S  OF  Hours. 


91 


established  between  France  and  Germany,  or  was  it  that  a 
copy  was  made  of  it  by  a  French  designer?  It  is  difficult  to 
say.  Still  the  coincidence  is  not  common  to  all  the  missals 
of  the  great  Parisian  bookseller.  The  Death  of  the  Virgin 
(Fig.  52)  here  reproduced  is  an  evident  proof  of  it.  It  forms 
part  of  the  1488  book,  and  is  certainly  a  truly  French  work. 
It    may   be    said    that  from   the  artistic  association  of  Phili[) 


&0  PRovo#Mn^R^maEi 


Fig.  53. —  Mark  ot"  Antoine  Verard,  printer  at  Paris,  149S. 

Pigouchet  and  Simon  Vostre  emanated  the  art  of  book  illus- 
tration in  France  ;  they  worked  together  for  eighteen  years, 
in  steady  collaboration,  and,  as  far  as  we  know,  without  a 
cloud.  When  Vostre  started  in  business  in  1488  he  lived 
in  the  Rue  Neuve  Notre  Dame,  at  the  sign  of  "  St.  Jean 
I'Evangeliste  ;  "  and  in  1520  he  was  still  there,  having 
published  more  than  three  hundred  editions  of  the  Hotirs  for 
the  use  of  the  several  cities. 


92  THE  Book. 

Contemporary  with  Simon  Vostre,  another  pubHsher  was 
giving  a  singular  impulse  to  the  Book  by  his  extreme  energy, 
true  taste,  and  the  aid  of  first-class  artists.  Antoine  Verard, 
the  most  illustrious  of  the  old  French  booksellers,  was  a  cali- 
grapher,  printer,  illuminator  and  dealer  (Fig.  53).  Born  in 
the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  he  established  himself 
in  Paris  on  the  Porit  Notre  Dame,  both  sides  of  which  were 
then  covered  with  shops,  and  about  1485  commenced  his  fine 
editions  with  a  Decameron  in  French  by  Laurent  de  Premier- 
fait.  M.  Renouvier  remarks  in  his  notice  of  Verard  that  his 
first  books  were  not  good  ;  the  plates  were  often  unskilful, 
and  were  probably  borrowed  or  bought  from  others.  This  may 
be  very  well  understood  in  a  beginner  whose  modest  resources 
did  not  permit  bold  enterprises  ;  moreover,  the  figures  were 
in  most  cases  groundworks  for  miniatures,  outlines  and  sketches 
rather   than    vignettes. 

Antony  Verard  was  accustomed  to  take  a  certain  number 
of  fine  copies  on  vellum  or  paper  of  each  book  published  by 
him,  in  which  qualified  painters  added  miniatures  and  orna- 
ments. It  is  curious  now  to  find  what  the  cost  to  one  of 
the  great  lords  of  the  court  of  Charles  \TII.  was  of  one  of 
these  special  copies  in  all  the  details  of  its  production. 
We  find  it  in  a  document  published  by  jNI.  Senemaud  in 
a  provincial  journal  [Biiiietin  de  la  Société  Archéologique  de  la 
Charente,  1859,  part  2,  p.  91),  which  enables  us  at  the  same 
time  to  penetrate  into  a  printing  office  of  a  great  French 
publisher  of  the  fifteenth  century.  According  to  this  docu- 
ment, Verard  did  not  disdain  to  put  his  own  hand  to  the 
work,  even  to  carrying  the  book  to  the  house  of  his  patron  if 
he  happened  to  be  a  man  of  consequence.  It  is  an  account 
of    Charles    de    Valois- Angouléme,    father    of    Francis    I.       He 


Books  of  Hours. 


93 


was  then  living  at  Cognac  ;  and  he  ordered  Verard  to  print 
separately  for  him  on  vellum  the  romance  of  Tristan,  the 
Book  of  Consolation    of   Boetius,  the  Ordinaire  dit  Chretien,  and 


l^ŒS 


^^s*^.i 


and    binding 


[egoîioiminirt    y 


3fiugrtiiiatççi!? 


the  Heures  en  François, 
each  with  illuminations 
In  the 
detail  of  expenses 
\'erard  omits  nothing. 
He  reckons  the  parch- 
ment at  three  sous  four 
deniers  the  sheet,  the 
painted  and  illuminated 
figures  at  one  ecu  the 
large  and  five  sols  the 
small.  We  give  here 
the  outline  of  one  of  the 
plates    of    the    Tristan, 


'•Jobicrtrwttfctio  J 
memrc-fopfiii'/ 


■  §i6ifrafTi!rciJ 
■SctufiiStrffiiw 
tcrti3c.§  II  fpm 

lîocciSiîtfmiVÇù'i 
f  I'eSmieert  quia  I 
^riflSif  refutgct 


î~ig.  54. — Border  of  the  Grandes  Hemes  of  Antony  Verard  : 
Paris,  1498   (?). 

ordered  by  the  Due  d'Angoulème,  reduced  by  two-thirds,  and 
from  its  work  (Fig.  55)  it  may  be  judged  that  the  profession  of 
the  illuminator,  even  for  the  time,  was  by  no  means  brilliant. 
The    binding    was    in     dark-coloured     velvet,    with     two    clasps 


94  The  Book. 

with  the  arms  of  the  Duke,  which  cost  sixty  sous  each. 
The  work  finished,  Vérard  took  the  road  for  Cognac,  carrying 
the  precious  volumes.  He  was  allowed  twenty  livres  for  his 
travelling  expenses  ;  and  this  brings  the  total  to  two  hundred 
and  seven  livres  ten  sous,  equivalent  to  ^200  to  ,^240  of 
present  money. 


Fig.  55- — Plate  fiom  the  Tn's/nii  published  by  Antoine  Vérard,  a  copy  of  which 
was  illuminated  for  Charles  of  Angoulême. 


Vérard  had  preceded  Simon  Vostre  in  the  publication  of 
Books  of  Hours,  but  his  first  volume,  dated  1487,  was  not 
successful,  owing  to  the  want  of  borders  and  frontispieces.  At 
the  most  he  had  introduced  coarse  figures  intended  for  illumi- 
nation,   which    were    rather    wooden    daubs    than    vignettes.       In 


Books  of  Hours. 


95 


1488,     the     same     year     that     Simon     Vostre    commenced     his 
publications,   Vérard   put    forth,   by   "command   of   the   King  our 


Fig.  56. — Page  of  the  Grandes  Heures  of  Antoine  Vérard  :  Paris, 
fifteenth  century. 

lord,"  the  book  called    the  Grandes  Hcitrcs,  which  is  in  quarto, 
Gothic    letter,    without    paging,    twenty    lines    to    the    full    page. 


go  The  Book. 

This  Grandes  Hanxs  contained  fourteen  engravings,  large 
borders  in  four  compartments,  smaller  subjects  and  initials 
rubricated  by  hand.  He  thus  published  more  than  two 
hundred  editions  between  1487  and  15 13,  and  among  them  the 
Mystère  de  la  Passion,  with  eighty  figures  ;  the  Grandes 
Chroniques,  in  three  folio  volumes,  printed  by  Jean  Maurand  ; 
the  Biitaille  Jnddiqiie  of  Flavius  Josephus  ;  the  Légende  Doree 
of  Yoragine,  all  books  for  which  he  called  to  his  aid  rubri- 
cators,  illuminators  and  miniaturists.  From  the  outset  he  had 
two  shops  where  he  published  his  productions  :  one  on  the 
Pont  Notre  Dame,  the  other  at  the  Palace  of  Justice,  "au 
premier  pilier  devant  la  chapelle  où  l'on  chante  la  messe  de 
messeigneurs  les  présidents."  After  1499,  when  the  Pont 
Notre  Dame  was  burned  Vérard  transported  his  books  to  the 
Carrefour  St.  Severin.  At  his  death  in  15 13  he  resided  in 
the  Rue  Neuve  Notre  Dame,  "devant  Nostre-Darae  de 
Paris." 

Besides  Vérard,  Vostre,  and  Pigouchet,  many  others  will 
be  found  who  imitated  them  in  the  publication  of  Books  of 
Hours.  The  first  was  Jean  du  Pré,  who  published  a  Paris 
missal  in  14S1,  and  who  was  at  once  printer  and  bookseller. 
Like  Pigouchet,  Du  Pré  printed  Books  of  Hours  for  provincial 
publishers,  without  dreaming  of  the  competition  he  was  creating 
for  himself.  It  is  not  the  least  curious  feature  in  connection 
with  the  study  of  the  History  of  the  Book,  to  notice  the 
encroachments  of  the  publishers  upon  one  another,  as  well  as 
the  friendly  exchanges,  the  loans  even  of  plates  and  type. 
Thielman  Kerver,  a  German,  also  began  to  put  forth  Books  of 
Hours  in  1497  in  Paris,  ornamenting  them  with  borders  and 
figures  on  wood,  and  modelling  his  work  completely  upon  that 
of  Simon    Vostre.      But    after   having    imitated    him,   he    became 


Books  of  Hours. 


97 


associated  with  him  in  the  publication  and  sale  of  the  Paris 
A/zssa/.  The  competition  of  these  men  was  evidently  an  honest 
one,  also  the  sale  of  pious  works  was  sufficient  to  maintain 
all  engaged  in  it.  Established  on  the  Pont  St.  Michel, 
at  the  sign  of  the  "  Unicorn,"  he  sold  his  stock  to  Gilles 
Remade  about  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

Thielman    Kerver    in    his    own    works    shows    himself  as  the 
rival  of  Simon  Vostre.     The  Hardouins,  who  followed  the  same 


Fig-  57. — Typographical  mark  of  Thielman  Kerver. 


profession,  do  not  appear  to  have  attained  the  success  of  their 
predecessors  ;  and,  if  we  except  the  Heiti-es  à  F  Usage  de  Rome, 
published  in  1503  by  Gilles  Hardouin  on  the  Pont  au  Change, 
at  the  sign  of  the  "  Rose,"  they  servilely  imitated  their 
predecessors.  There  was  also  among  the  disciples  of  Vostre, 
Guillaume  Eustache,  bookseller  to  the  king,  "tenant  la  boutique 
dedans  la  grant  salle  du  palais  du  costé  de  messeigneurs  les 
presidens,  ou  sur   les  grans    degrés    du    costé  de  la  conciergerie 


98 


The  Book. 


à  I'ymage  St.  Jean  I'Evangeliste."  Eustache  made  use  of  the 
work  of  Pigouchet  and  Kerver,  not  to  mention  the  printers 
of  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

We  have    named   the    principal  and   the  fortunate  ones  ;  but 


Fig.  58. — Plate  from  a  Book  of  Hours  of  Simon  Vostre,  representing 
the  Massacre  of  the  Innocents. 

what  has  become  of  the  crowd  of  other  publishers  whose 
ambition  was  equally  aroused  before  the  success  of  \'ostre 
and  Vérard  ?  There  were  Denis  Meslier,  with  his  quarto 
Heures  de  Bourges,  and  \'incent  Commin,  bookseller  of  the  Rue 
Neuve  Notre  Dame,   who  thus  appealed  to  his  customers  : — 


The  Dances  of  Death.  99 

"Qui  veult  en  avoir?     On  en  treuve 
A  très  grand  marché  et  bon  pris 
A  la  Rose,  dans  la  rue  Neuve 
De  Nostre-Dame  de  Paris." 

There  were  also  Robin  Chaillot,  Laurent  Philippe,  and  a 
hundred  others  whose  names  have  died  with  them  or  are 
robbed  of  the  fruit  of  their  works. 

But    if  pious   books  of   this    kind    found   vogue  and    a    large 


Fig.  59. — Dance  of  Dfalli,  said  to  be  by  Verard.     Ttie  Pope  and 
the  Emperor. 

.sale  at  this  epoch,  the  dealers  did  not  keep  to  ascetic  publica- 
tions only.  By  a  singular  mixture  of  the  sacred  and  the  profane, 
the  book-men  displayed  also  on  their  stalls  the  Decameron  of 
Boccaccio  as  well  as  the  Hours  of  the  hnmaculate  Virgin,  and 
the  purchasers  took  an  interest  in  the  one  as  well  as  in 
the  other.  Besides,  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  had  its 
literary  preferences,  its  alluring  tides,  its  attractive  frontispieces. 
At  the  commencement  of  the  present  century  double  titles — 
Atala  ;  or,  The  Child  of  Mystery  :  Waverley  ;  or,  '  Tis  Six/y 
Years     Since — were    common,    although     now    out     of    fashion. 


loo  The  Book. 

Afterwards  came  books  of  \.x-dM  (As— Voyages  au  Pays  des 
Milliards,  Voyages  aux  Pays  des  Rcvolutionnaires,  etc.  Also  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  and  even  from  the  fourteenth,  a  series  of 
titles  was  in  public  favour.  There  was  first  the  Débats,  or 
"Dialogues:"  Débat  de  la  Dame  et  de  F Escuyer,  Paris,  1490, 
folio  ;  Dialogue  of  Dives  and  Pauper,  London,  Richard 
Pynson,  1493  ;  and  many  other  eccentric  titles.  There  appeared 
also  thousands  of  complaintes,  a  kind  of  lay  in  verse  or  prose  ; 
blasons,  light  pieces  describing  this  or  that  thing  ;  doctrinals, 
that  had  nothing  to  do  with  doctrine.  And  among  the  most 
approved  subjects,  between  the  piety  of  some  and  the  gaiety 
of  others,  the  Dances  of  Death  established  themselves  firmly, 
showing,  according  to  the  different  spheres  of  society  then 
prevalent,  Death  taking  the  great  ones  of  the  earth,  torturing 
alike  pope,  emperor,  constable,  or  minstrel,  grimacing  at  youth, 
majesty,  and  love.  Long  before  printing  appeared,  the  Dances 
of  Death  found  their  delineators  ;  they  were  some  consolation 
for  the  wretched  against  their  powerful  masters,  the  revenge 
of  the  rabble  against  the  king.  They  may  be  seen  painted, 
sculptured,  illuminated,  when  engraving  was  not  there  to  multiply 
their  use  ;  they  may  be  seen  largely  displayed  on  walls,  sombre 
and  awe-inspiring,  at  Dresden,  Leipzig,  Erfurt,  Berne,  Lucerne, 
Rouen,  Amiens,  and  Chaise-Dieu.  It  was  the  great  human 
equality,  which  first  tempted  the  French,  then  the  inimitable 
Holbein.     Death  cries  to  the  lords  and  fortunate  of  this  world  : — 

"  Et  après  quant  vous  serez  morts 
Tout  ainsy  que  poures  truans, 
Vous  serez  hydeus  et  puans, 
Des  nostres  et  de  noz  livrées  !    .    .    . 
Il  ne  soufBst  assez  de  dire 
De  voz  meschans  corps  la  misère, 
Qui  ne  sont  pas  d'autre  matera, 
Certainement,  que  nous  ne  sommes." 


The  Daxces  of  Death.  ioi 

We  can  imagine  the  impression  these  bitter  ironies  made 
on  the  oppressed  and  disdained  lower  classes.  The  first  Dance 
of  Death  was  produced  by  Guyot  Marchant  in  1485,  in  ten 
leaves  and  seventeen  engravings,  in  folio,  with  Gothic  cha- 
racters. Marchant  describes  himself  as  "  demeurant  en  Champ 
Gaillart  à  Paris  le  vingt-huitiesme  jour  de  septembre  mil  quatre 
cent  quatre  vingtz  et  cinq"  (Fig.  60)  The  book  must  have 
gone  off  rapidly,  for  it  was  republished  in  the  following  year, 
with  additions    and     new  engravings.       French     illustration    was 


Fig.  60.— Diriice  of  Death  of  Guyot  Marchant  in  14S6.     The 
Pope  and  the  Emperor. 

already  moving  forward,  as  may  be  judged  by  the  reproduc- 
tions here  given  from  the  folio  edition  of  i486.  It  is  the 
pope  and  emperor,  glory  and  power,  that  are  led  and  plagued 
by  Death,   hideous  Death,  with  open  body  and  frightful  grin. 

We  could  wish  that  the  tendencies  and  processes  of  what 
may  be  called  the  second  generation  of  printers  were  well 
understood.  In  a  few  years  they  surmounted  the  difficulties  of 
their  art,  and  made  the  Book  a  model  of  elegance  and  simpli- 
city. The  smallest  details  were  cared  for,  and  things  apparently 
the     most     minute      were     studied     and      rendered      significant. 


102 


The  Book. 


Speaking  of  titles,  an  enormous  progress  was  here  made  in  the 
publications  of  the  end  of  the  century.  In  Italy  subjects 
of  decoration  were  used  as  a  framework  for  the  front  page, 
wherein  were  included  useful  indications.  The  most  ancient 
specimen  of  this  kind  has  already  been  referred  to.  A  model 
of  this  species  is  the  St.  Jet'ouie,  published  at  Ferrara  by 
Lorenzo  Rossi,  of  Valenza,  in  1497,  folio;  the  title,  much 
adorned,  is  in  Gothic  letters  ;  the  engraved  initial  is  very 
adroitly  left  in  outline,  so  as  not  to  burden  or  break  the  text. 
In  Germany  bad    taste  and  prodigality  already  began    to  be 


Fig.  61. — Mark  of  Guy  Marchant,  printer  at  Paris,  1485. 


apparent  ;  the  letters  become  interlaced,  the  Gothic  type  is 
covered  with  useless  fantastic  appendages  and  gets  bewildering, 
and  the  titles  become  intricate  ;  later  they  became  illegible  even 
to  the  Germans  themselves.  "In  France  the  front  page  gave 
the  most  circumstantial  indications  of  the  contents  of  the  work, 
with  the  name  and  abode  of  the  printer  and  bookseller.  These 
titles  were  often  ornamented  with  moveable  frameworks,  printed 
in  Gothic,  sometimes  in  two  colours,  which  necessitated  two 
printings,  one  for  the  black  and  one  for  the  red  ink.  The  mark 
of  the  printer  or  publisher  generally  appeared,  and  it  was  nearly 
always   a  charming   piece  of  work.     These   French    marks  were 


PRINTERS'    MARKS.  103 

all  treated  more  or  less  heraldically  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  initials 
occupy  a  shield,  sustained  by  supporters  and  cut  with  extreme 
care.  The  first  was  that  of  Fust  and  Schoeffer  at  Mayence,  of 
admirable  simplicity  and  grace.  In  France  this  early  specimen 
of  the  trade  mark  took  with  Simon  Vostre  and  Vérard  the 
shape  of  delicate  illustrations,  finely  designed  and  carefully 
engraved  ;  but  the  custom  of  allusive  marks  did  not  prevail,  as 
we  shall  have  occasion  to  see,  until  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
marks  of  Pigouchet,  Vostre,  and  Vérard  have  already  been 
given  ;  that  of  Thielman  Kerver  is  conceived  in  the  same 
principles  of  taste  and  art.  The  sign  of  his  house  being  the 
"  Unicorn,"  Kerver  took  as  supporters  to  his  shield  two 
unicorns  affrontées. 

In  these  colophons  are  sometimes  found  philosophic  aphorisms, 
satirical  remarks,  marvels  of  poetry.  One  bookseller  pays 
homage  to  the  powerful  university,  which  dispenses  glory  and 
riches  to  the  poor  tradesmen  by  buying  many  books.  Andrew 
Bocard  engraved  on  his  mark  this  flattery  as  a  border  : — 

"  Honneur  au   Roy  et  à  la  court. 
Salut  à  l'Université 
Dont  nostre  bien  procède  et  sourt 
Dieu  gart  de  Paris  la  cité  !  " 

The  Germans  introduced  into  their  colophons  some  vain- 
glorious notices.  Arnold  Ther  Hoernen,  already  mentioned, 
who  printed  the  Theiitonista  at  Cologne  in  1477,  boasted  in  it 
of  having  corrected  it  all  with  his  own  hands.  Jean  Treschel 
(Fig.  63),  established  at  Lyons  in  1493,  proclaims  himself  a 
German,  as  the  Germans  were  the  inventors  of  that  art 
which  he  himself  possessed  to  an  eminent  degree.  He  prided 
himself  on  being  what  we  may  call  a  skilled  typographer  ; 
"  viruni     hujus     artis     solertissimum,"     he    writes    without    false 


I04 


The  Book. 


modesty.  At  times,  in  the  colophons  of  his  books,  he  at- 
tempted Latin  verse,  the  Sapphic  verse  of  Horace,  of  a  playful 
turn,   to  say  that  his  work  was  perfected  in   1494. 

"  Arte  et  expensis  vigilique  cura 
Treschel  explevit  opus  hoc  Joannes, 
Mille  quingentos  ubi  Christus  annos 

Sex  minus  egit. 
Jamque  Lugduni  juvenes,  senesque, 
Martias  nonas  célèbres  agebant 
Magna  Reginae  quia  prepotenti 
Festa  parabant.'' 


Fig.  62. — Frontispiece  to  Terence,  published  by  Treschel  at  Lj'ons 
in  1493.     The  author  writing  his  book. 

The  portrait  is  another  element  of  illustration,  the  figure  of 
the  author  is  prefixed  to  his  work.  It  had  already  been  a 
custom  in  the  manuscripts  to  paint  on  the  first  leaf  of  the  work 
the  likeness  of  him  who  wrote  it,  frequently  in  the  act  of 
presenting  his  book  to  some  noble  patron  ;  and  in  this  way 
is  often  preserved  the  only  known  portrait  of  either  patron  or 
author.      Printing    and    engraving   rendered    these    effigies    more 


The  Portrait  ix  the  Book.  105 

common,  the  portraits  of  one  often  served  for  another,  and  the 
booksellers  used  them  without  very  much  scruple.  As  we  shall 
see  later,  this  became  in  the  sixteenth  century  a  means  of 
illustrating  a  book  in  the  most  simple  manner,  but  only  at 
the  time  when  the  portrait,  drawn  or  painted,  commenced  to 
be  more  widely  used.  Previously  the  cliches  of  which  we  spoke 
went  everywhere,  from  the  Italians  to  the  French,  from  /Esop 
to  Accursius  ;  these  uncertain  features  date  back  from  the 
manuscrijDt      romances     of     chivalry,     from      whence     they    were 


Fig.  63.  —  Mark  of  Trescliel,  printer  at  Lyons,  14S9. 

servilely  copied  in  typography.  The  Italians  from  the  first 
mixed  the  ancient  and  the  modern.  Thus  in  a  Breviarmm 
des  Décrets,  printed  in  1478,  there  is  an  engraved  portrait  of 
Paul  Florentin. 

In  France  the  author  is  often  represented  writing,  and  it  was 
so  up  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  an  edition 
of  Die  Cas  des  Nobles  Hommes,  by  Jean  Dupré,  in  1483, 
Boccaccio  is  represented  seated,  having  before  him  his  French 
translator,  Laurent  de  Premierfait.  This  plate  is  one  of  the. 
oldest    representations    of    authors    in    French    books.       In    the 


io6  The  Book. 

Roman  de  la  Rose,  first  edition  of  Paris  and  Lyons,  in  folio, 
probably  published  by  Guillaume  Leroy  about  1485,  Guillaume 
de   Lorris,  the  author,   is  shown  in  his  bed  : — 

"  Une  nuyt  comme  je  songeoye, 
Et  de  fait  dormir  me  convient, 
En  dormant  un  songe  m'advint.   .   .  ." 

There  is  also  a  portrait  of  Alain  Chartier  in  his  Faits, 
printed  in  1489.  In  the  Terence  of  Treschel,  of  Lyons,  in 
1493,  we  see  a  grammarian  (Fig.  62)  of  the  fifteenth  century  in 
a  furnished  room  of  the  time,  occupied  in  writing  at  a  desk  ;  this 
is  Guy  Jouvenal,  of  Le  Mans,  the  author  of  the  commentary. 

Thus  was  printing  developed,  carrying  with  it  to  the 
countries  where  it  was  established  the  rules  of  an  unchangeable 
principle  ;  but,  according  to  its  surroundings,  it  was  so  trans- 
formed in  a  few  years  that  its  origin  was  no  longer  recognised. 
It  was  light  in  Italy,  heavy  in  Germany,  gay  in  France. 
Painting,  of  which  it  was  accidentally  the  outcome,  returned 
to  it  under  the  form  of  illustration  a  short  time  after  its  first 
and  fruitful  essays.  The  Gothic  character  which  was  general  in 
Germany,  continued  to  be  used  in  P'rance  by  the  Vostres,  the 
Vérards,  and  others  up  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
although  the  earliest  printers  before  this  used  Roman  type  ;  it 
was  also  the  prevailing  type  used  in  English  books.  In  Italy 
it  was  Jenson,  a  Frenchman,  who  introduced  the  alphabet 
preserved  to  the  present  time  ;  and  it  was  the  Venetians  and 
Florentines  who  were  the  first  to  learn  the  art  of  judicious  orna- 
mentation of  the  Book.  The  French  came  very  near  perfection, 
thanks  to  their  printers  and  booksellers,  at  the  end  of  the 
century  ;  and  the  Germans  found  illustrious  artists  to  scatter 
their  compositions  in  their  large,  heavy  works. 


CHAPTER     III. 

1500    TO     1600. 

French  epics  and  the  Renaissance — Venice  and  Aldus  Manutius — ItaHan  illus- 
trators— The  Germans  :  Theuerdanck,  Schàufelein — The  Book  in  other  countries 
— French  books  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  before  the  accession  of 
Francis  I. — English  printers  and  their  work — Engraved  plates  in  English 
books — Geoffroy  Tory  and  his  works — Francis  I.  and  the  Book — Robert 
Estienne — Lyons  a  centre  of  bookselling  :  Holbein's  Dances  of  Death — School 
of  Basle — -Alciati's  emblems  and  the  illustrated  books  of  the  middle  of  the 
century — The  school  of  Fontainebleau  and  its  influence — Solomon  Bernard — 
Cornells  de  la  Haye  and  the  Promptuaire — Jean  Cousin — Copperplate 
engraving  and  metal  plates — Woériot — The  portrait  in  the  Book  of  the  six- 
teenth century — How  a  book  was  illustrated  on  wood  at  the  end  of  the  century 
— Influence  of  Plantin  on  the  Book;  his  school  of  engravers— General  con- 
siderations— Progress  in  England — Coverdale's  Bible. 


UR  simple  division  into  chapters,  it  will  be 
understood,  does  not  exactly  correspond  with 
the  most  momentous  epochs  in  the  history  of 
the  Book  in  France  and  abroad.  Doubtless 
it  would  be  easy  for  France  alone  to  find 
some  limits  and  to  supply  a  framework  within  which  contem- 
porary publishers  might  be  grouped.  But  in  order  to  present, 
as  in  a  synoptical  table,  an  essential  and  abridged  sketch  of 
the  Book  in  all  European  countries,  it  appeared  to  us 
more  convenient  to  take  the  confused  and  tangled  notions 
by  centuries  and  to    unfold   them   conjointly  in    Italy,   Germany, 


io8  The  Book. 

England  and  France,  in  taking  up  by  the  way  the  most 
salient  features.  Moreover,  after  the  sixteenth  century  neither 
Italy  nor  Germany  counts  for  much  in  comparison  with 
France,  which,  less  fortunate,  perhaps,  at  the  beginning  than 
her  neighbours,  surpassed  them  in  all  the  pride  of  her 
genius. 

The  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century  found  the 
French  army  in  Italy,  under  the  command  of  Louis  XII.  Led 
from  glory  to  glory,  the  French  successively  visited  Pisa,  Capua, 
and  Naples,  and  that  which  has  since  been  called  the  Renais- 
sance impressed  itself  little  by  little  on  the  conquerors.  At 
Venice  there  lived  Aldus  Pius  Manutius,  then  the  greatest 
printer  of  the  entire  world.  Aldus  became  proprietor  of  the 
celebrated  printing  office  of  Nicholas  Jenson,  through  his  father- 
in-law,  Andrea  Torresani,  of  Asola,  who  himself  acquired  it  on 
the  death  of  the  French  printer  ;  and  he  had  in  a  few  years 
conducted  it  to  a  position  without  a  rival.  We  have  seen 
him  already  printing,  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  admirable  volume  Hypnerotomachia,  the  renown  of  which 
became  universal.  Aldus  was  fifty-two  years  of  age,  having 
been  born  in  1447  ;  and  his  learning  was  increased  by  daily 
intercourse  with  learned  Italians,  among  others  with  the  cele- 
brated Pico  de  la  Mirandola.  His  establishment  at  Venice  ever 
since  the  year  14S8  had  for  its  object  the  creation  of  a  chair  in 
■Greek,  in  which  language  he  was  well  instructed  from  his  youth. 
The  idea  having  come  to  him  of  issuing  editions  of  the  prin- 
cipal Greek  writers,  which  up  to  then  remained  in  manuscript, 
he  was  induced  to  start  a  printing  office  with  that  purpose.  He 
first  published  the  Hero  and  Leander  of  Musœus  in  1494.  quarto, 
in  a  Greek  character  apparently  designed  by  him,  and  engraved 
perhaps    by   Francisco    da    Bologna  ;    then    the    Greek  Grammar 


Aldus  Manutius.  109 

of  Constantine  Lascaris,  with  the  date  of  1494  ;  and  the  Works 
of  Aristotle  in  five  folio  volumes.  At  the  time  of  the  Italian 
wars,  Aldus  was  making  a  revolution  in  typography,  by  produc- 
ing more  compact  sizes  and  finer  characters,  which  would 
permit  a  volume  of  the  smallest  height  to  contain  the  matter 
of  a  folio  printed  with  large  type.  Legend  says  that  the  new 
letters  were  copied  exactly  from  the  handwriting  of  Petrarch 
(of  which  author  he  published  an  edition  in  1501,  the  first 
Italian    work    printed    in    Italic    type),   inclining    like  all    cursive 


Fig.  64. — The  anchor  and  dolphin,  mark  of  Aldus 
Manutius,  after  the  original  in  the  Tcvze  Rime  of 
1520,  where  it  appears  for  the  first  time. 

writing  ;  the  name  of  Italic  was  given  to  this  character,  which 
was  also  called  Aldinc,  from  its  inventor.  It  was  engraved  by 
Francisco  da  Bologna.  Aldus  also  published  in  octavo  size,  with 
this  kind  of  letter,  an  edition  of  Virgil  in  1501.  To  procure 
a  perfect  copy  of  this  first  Aldine  Virgil  is  almost  hopeless, 
and  the  somewhat  defective  copies  which  lately  turned  up  at 
the  Sir  John  Thorold's  and  Wodhull's  sale  brought  ^145.  Then 
he  produced  a  Horace,  a  Juvenal,  a  Martial,  etc.  The  following 
year,    1502,  he  gave    an    edition    of  the    Terze   Rime   of   Dante 


no  The  Book. 

and  for  the  first  time  took  as  his  typographical  mark  an  anchor 
encircled   by  a  dolphin.* 

His  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  Andrea  Torresani,  of 
Asola,  brought  together  into  his  possession  two  printing  houses. 
The  burden  became  too  heavy  for  Manutius  to  think  henceforth 
of  doing  all  the  work  himself  Besides,  the  wars  did  not  allow 
him  any  repose,  of  which  he  bitterly  complained  in  his  prefaces. 
He  therefore  attracted  young  Greek  scholars,  who  supervised, 
each  one  in  his  specialty,  the  works  in  progress,  and  founded 
a  society,  a  kind  of  Aldine  academy,  in  which  the  greatest  names 
of  the  epoch  were  united.  Aldus  conveys  the  perfect  idea  of  a 
great  printer  at  those  times,  doing  honour  to  celebrated  men, 
in  the  midst  of  business  preoccupations  and  of  the  annoyance 
caused  by  the  war.  It  is  said  that  Erasmus,  passing  through 
Venice,  called  on  him,  and  as  he  was  not  duly  announced  to 
him,  was  rather  badly  received  by  the  powerful  printer.  All  at 
once,  at  the  name  of  the  distinguished  visitor  being  mentioned, 
Aldus,  for  an  instant  taken  aback,  rose  at  once  and  showed  him 
how  highly  he  appreciated  men  of  letters. 

The  war  resulted  in  the  alteration  of  this  state  of  affairs. 
In  1505  Aldus  quitted  \'enice  to  travel  over  the  world,  and  on 
his  return  he  found  himself  poorer  than  when  he  went  away. 
Andrea  Torresani,  his  father-in-law,  came  to  his  aid  ;  but  the 
great  printer  had  received  his  death-blow  ;  and  in  spite  of  the 
activity  which  he  brought  to  the  new  establishment,  he  went 
from  bad  to  worse  until  15 15.  when  he  expired,  leaving  to  his 
son   Paul  his  affairs  in  a  state  of  inextricable  confusion. 


•  Tory  in  his  Champfleury  explains  thus  the  mark  of  Aldus  and  his  device, 
which  was  in  Greek  the  "Make  haste  slowly"  of  Boileau  :  "The  anchor  signifies 
tardiness,  and  the  dolphin  haste,  which  is  to  say  that  in  his  business  he  was 
moderate." 


Aldcs  MAxmcs.  Ill 

He  had  early  abandoned  book  illustration  to  devote  himself 
to  the  scientific  and  useful  in  his  publications  ;  moreover,  the 
size  of  book  chosen  by  him  was  badly  suited  for  the  introduction 
of  plates  ;  but  other  publishers  employed  artists  in  the  orna- 
mentation of  the  Book.      Lucantonio  Giunta,  the  most  celebrated 


Fig.  65. — Aldus  Manutius. 


among  them,  was  at  once  printer  and  engraver,  a  striking 
example  of  the  affinity  of  the  two  trades  from  their  origin. 
In  150S  Lucantonio  Giunta,  or  Zonta,  as  he  then  spelt  his 
name,  published  a  Roman  Breviary  in  large  quarto,  with  twelve 
engravings  in  Lombardo-\'enetian  manner,  signed  "  L.  A.,"  in 
very    good    style.       The  s;ime    artist-publisher  cut   a  portrait    of 


112 


The  Book. 


Virgil  for  an  edition  of  that  poet  about  1515.  Furthermore, 
Giunta  did  not  alone  illustrate  the  book  from  the  resources 
of  his  own  office.  Other  designers  lent  him  their  assistance. 
We  find  evidence  of  this -in  the  Bible  printed  by  him  in  15 19 
in   small   octavo. 

The  most  meritorious  of  the  artists  of  Venice  at  this  tiniî 
was  John  Andrea,  known  as  Guadagnino.  He  designed  the 
vignettes  for  Floriis  s  Epitome  in  T.  Livl  Hist,  lib.,  and  for 
Aretinus  de  Primo  Bello  Punico,  printed   at   Venice  for   Melchior 


Fig.  66. — Mark  ot  Lucantonio  Giuata,  of  Venice. 

Sessa  and  Peter  of  Ravenna  (1520,  folio);  in  1516  he  copied 
the  plates  of  Ulirer's  Apocalypse  for  the  edition  of  Alexander 
Paganini,  of  Venice.  One  of  the  Venetian  works  which 
signalised  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  the 
Trion/o  di  Fortuna  of  Sigismond  Fanti,  of  Ferrara,  printed 
by  Agostino  da  Portese  in   1527. 

Venice  was  the  home  of  Titian,  and  at  the  time  which 
occupies  us  now,  the  great  artist  was  at  the  height  of  his 
glory.  In  15 18  two  brothers,  Nicholas  and  Dominic  dal 
Gesu,  published  a  translation  of  the  celebrated  Golden  Legend  of 


ITAI.IAX   ILLVSTRATORS.  1 13 

Voragine,  the  success  of  which  was  enormous  in  France.  The 
plates  which  were  added  to  the  work  were  manifestly  inspired 
by  the  school  of  the  Venetian  master.  Unfortunately  the 
engravers  were  not  always  equal  to  the  genius  of  the  drawings. 

To  resume,  the  city  of  Venice  was,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  one  of  the  most  prolific  in  publishers  and 
artists  of  talent.  Since  the  first  establishments  of  the  Germans, 
typography  had  successively  employed  in  Venice  Nicholas  Jenson, 
a  Frenchman,  the  inventor  of  the  Roman  character  ;  Erhard 
Ratdolt,  the  first  to  employ  illustrations  there  ;  and  Aldus 
Manutius,  scholar  and  printer,  whose  progress  in  printing  elevated 
that  art  to  the  highest  rank  among  human  discoveries  ;  there 
were  also  remarkable  engravers  and  draughtsmen,  among  others 
John  Andrea  and  Giunta,  without  mentioning  the  anonymous 
masters  of  the  school  of  Titian.  The  part  of  Venice  in  the 
movement  was  thus  great,  but  it  may  be  explained  by  the 
riches  of  its  citizens,  the  extent  of  its  commerce,  and  the 
genius  of  its  own  artists. 

If  we  now  return  from  Venice  to  the  north,  to  Milan,  we 
find  the  school  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci  making  itself  apparent  in 
the  Book.  In  order  of  date  we  will  mention  the  Mysterii  Gesta 
Bcatœ  ]^eronicœ  Vïrginis,  published  by  Gotardo  de  Ponte,  15 18, 
small  quarto,  with  figures  in  the  style  of  Luini,  and  Vitruvms 
in  Italian  by  Cesariano.  On  the  testimony  of  the  author,  the 
wood  engravings  in  a  book  of  Fra  Luca  Pacioli,  De  Divina 
Proportione,  are  even  attributed  to  Leonardo  da  Vinci.  But  M. 
Delaborde,  in  spite  of  the  declaration  in  the  preface  of  Pacioli, 
does  not  believe  in  the  direct  collaboration  of  the  master, 
although  M.   Passavant  does. 

In  Germany,  Nuremberg  continued,  with  Albert  Durer  and 
the   artists  of  his  school,  to  supply  illustrations  for  books  at  the 

8 


114  The  Book. 

beginning  of  the  century.  The  master  reprinted  his  valuable 
engravings  of  the  Life  of  the  Virgin  in  151 1,  and  also  those 
of  the  Apocalypse.  But  after  him  the  art  already  began 
to  decline  ;  a  hundred  years  later  nothing  remained  of  the 
honour  and  glory  gained  by  Germany  in  the  commencement. 
Among  the  most  interesting  of  the  Nuremberg  publications  is  a 
chivalric  poem  by  Melchior  Pfinzing,  composed  for  the  marriage 
of  Maximilian  and  Mary  of  Burgundy.  As  M.  Delaborde 
in  his  Debuts  de  I' Impriineine  well  remarks,  this  was  not  a 
book  intended  to  be  sold  by  a  bookseller  ;  it  was  a  work  of  art 


imwx 


Fig.  67. — Title  of  the  TJteucrdmick.     The  flourishes  of  the 
letters  are  printed. 

destined  originally  by  an  emperor  for  his  friends,  and  he  took 
care  that  it  should  be  an  unapproachable  work.  Bold  strokes, 
majestic  letters,  intertwined  ornaments,  are  here  multiplied.  Three 
persons  worked  upon  it  for  five  years  ;  these  were,  if  we  credit 
Peutinger,  Hans  Leonard  Schaufelein,  the  painter,  Jost  Necker, 
the  engraver,  and  Hans  Schonsperger,  the  printer  of  Augsburg, 
who  must  have  changed  his  native  city  for  Nuremberg.  When 
they  were  able  to  take  a  proof  experts  would  hardly  take  it  for  a 
book  composed  in  movable  characters  ;  they  were  sure,  on  the 
contrary,  that  it  was  a  true  xylograph,  cut  in  wood  ;  and,  in  fact, 
from  the  title  here  reproduced,  the  error  was  excusable.      This 


The    "  THEUERDANCK." 


115 


work,  which  is  now  called  the  Theucrdanck,  from  the  name  of 
the  hero  of  the  romance,  is  ornamented  with  a  number  of  wood 
engravings,  numbered  by  Arabic  figures.  We  reproduce  one  of 
the  last  plates,  in  which  Theuerdanck — Maximilian — is  con- 
ducted to  the  presence  of  the  Queen — Mary  of  Burgundy.  The 
designs  of  Schaufelein  almost  recall  the  work  of  Albert  Diirer, 
his   master  ;    but,    as   we    said    of   him,   these    works,    heavy   and 


lid 


Fig.  68. — Plate  taken  from  the  Theuerdanck,  representing  Maximilian  and 
Mary  of  Burgundy.     Engraved  on  wood  after  Schaufelein. 


broad,  although  very  clever,  do  not  always  suit  as  cuts  inserted 
in  the  text.  However,  our  criticism  does  not  refer  so  much  to 
the  Theuerdanck,  where  the  letters,  excessively  ornamented  and 
overwhelming,  furnish  a  framework  more  suitable  for  the 
engravings  than  to  other  works  of  a  more  slender  character, 
where  the  German  plate  completely  overshadows  the  text. 

When   we  have   mentioned   the  Passionale   Christi  of   Lucas 


ii6  The  Book. 

Cranach,  published  by  Johannes  Griinenberg  at  Wittemberg  in 
1 52 1 — twenty-six  inferior  wood  engravings — we  shall  have  men- 
tioned the  most  important  of  the  interesting  and  rare  volumes 
published  in  Germany  at  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

The  Netherlands,  Spain,  and  England  were  working,  but 
without  great  success.  In  the  Low  Countries  Plantin  and  his 
gigantic  enterprises  may  be  recalled.  In  Spain  the  taste  had 
hardly  developed  itself  ;  and  although  the  drawing  of  illus- 
trations may  be  careful  enough,  the  wood-cutting  is  pitiable. 
We  will  mention  the  Seneca  of  Toledo  in  1510,  and  the 
Chronicle   of  A7-agon  in    1523. 

Typography  and  the  illustration  of  the  Book  in  England 
in  the  sixteenth  century  did  not  make  the  same  progress  as 
in  France  and  Italy.  Much  good  work  was  done,  but  it  was 
mostly  with  foreign  material.  Type  was  obtained  from  French 
and  Dutch  founders,  and  most  of  the  woodcuts  had  the  same 
origin.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century  most  of  the  publica- 
tions were  translations  of  popular  foreign  books,  such  as 
Voragine's  Golden  Legend,  Caxton's  translations  of  Cicero, 
Boetius,  etc.  The  numerous  restrictions  and  privileges  re- 
strained the  establishment  of  an  English  school,  which  was 
to  come  later  with  the  spread  of  wealth  and  education.  Books 
were  mostly  printed  in  Gothic  type,  or  '"  black  letter,"  and 
the  woodcuts  were  of  the  coarsest  kind.  An  exception  was 
the  beautiful  Prayer-book  of  John  Day,  1578,  known  as 
Queen  Elizabeth's  Prayer-book,  from  the  fine  portrait  of  the 
Queen,  which  we  reproduce  ;  but  in  this  the  woodcuts  were 
designed  by  Albert  Diirer  and  Hans  Holbein.  Pynson  was 
the  first  to  use  Roman  type  in  England,  in  the  Oratio  in 
pace  miperrimâ,    151S,    quarto;    and    the  first    English    Bible   in 


OUEEX   ELI /^A BE TH  'S   PRA  1 IIR-BOUK. 


117 


Roman     type    was     printed     at     Edinburgh     in     1576.        It     is 
thought     that    until     about      1600     printers     were     their     own 


Fig.  69. — Portrait  of  Queen  Elizabeth  Ircm  the  Book  rf  Christian  Plains, 
printed  by  John  Daj",  157S. 

type-founders,    as    no    record   exists    of   founding    as    a    separate 
trade  until  that  time 

The    greatest     achievement      of     the    sixteenth     century    in 


ii8 


The  Book. 


England  was  the  printing  of  the  first  English  Bible,  in  Cover- 
dale's  translation,  in  1535,  folio,  but  even  this  was  printed 
abroad,  the  latest  investigation  giving  it  to  Van  Meteren  at 
Antwerp.  The  woodcuts  in  it  are  by  Hans  Sebald  Beham  ; 
we  reproduce  one  representing  Cain  killing  Abel.  Tyndall  had 
previously  printed  abroad  an  English  New  Testament.  Another 
importation  was  Brandt's  Shyp  of  Folys,  printed  by  Pynson, 
1509,  and  John  Cawood,  1570,  the  woodcuts  in  both  being 
copied  from  the  originals  before  referred  to. 


Fig.  70. — Woodcut  lioni  Coverdale's  Bible,  1535. 
Cain  killing  Abel. 


.The  size  usually  adopted  was  in  folio,  and  in  this  size  the 
series  of  Chronicles  appeared  :  Froissart,  by  Pynson,  in  two 
volumes,  1523-5;  Holinshed,  in  two  volumes,  1577  —  the 
first  and  genuine  edition  of  this  chronicle,  with  numerous 
woodcuts.  In  the  same  size  Chaucer  was  first  given  to 
the  world  entire  by  T.  Godfray  in  1532,  and  many  times 
reprinted,  and  Sir  Thomas  More's  JîorÂs  in  1557.  Polemical 
and  religious  treatises  were  mostly  printed  in  quarto,  as  were 
the  poets:  Spenser's  Faerie  Qiiccne.  in  1590;  Langland's 
Pierce    Plowman,    in     1550;    and    Sidney's    Arcadia,    in    1590. 


The  Exglish  Prixtkrs.  119 

Plays  were  also  printed  in  quarto,  in  which  shape  at  the 
end  of  the  century  some  of  Shakespeare's  single  plays  were 
issued. 

Richard  Grafton,  the  leading  English  printer,  first  printed 
the  English  Bible,  in  an  edition  of  2,500  copies,  at  Paris, 
in  connection  with  Edward  Whitchurche  (1538-9),  which  was 
confiscated  by  Francis  I.  ;  then  Cranmer's  Bible,  1539-41  ;  Edw. 
Halle's  Chronicle  and  first  Common  Prayer  Book,  1549;  and  he 
also  printed  Lady  Jane  Grey's  proclamation  of  the  first  English 
Common  Prayer  Book,  known  as  Edward  VI.'s  (a  copy  was  sold 
lately  from  Lord  Crawford's  library  for  ^155).  Edward's  book  is 
curious  as  having  on  the  last  page  a  royal  order  as  to  the  price 
at  which  it  was  to  be  sold  :  "  No  maner  of  persone  shall  sell  the 
present  Booke  vnbounde  aboue  the  price  of  two  shillynges  and 
two  pence.  And  bound  in  Forell  for  ii^-.  x^^.,  and  not  aboue. 
And  the  same  bound  in  Shepes  Lether  for  iii.c  iiic/.,  and  not 
aboue.  And  the  same  bounde  in  paste  or  in  boordes,  in 
Calues  Lether,  not  aboue  the  price  of  iiii.T.  the  pece  " 
Cranmer's  Catechism  was  printed  by  Nicholas  Hill  in  1548, 
with  twenty-nine  woodcuts  by  Hans  Holbein,  one  of  which 
we   reproduce,  representing  Christ  casting  out  devils. 

The  Stationers'  Company  was  founded  in  1556,  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Mary,  and  was  chiefly  composed  of  printers.  By 
Act  of  Parliament  every  book  printed  in  England  was  to  be 
entered  at  Stationers'    Hall. 

Hugh  Singleton  established  a  printing  office  in  the  City  of 
London   1553,  and  was  appointed  printer  to  the  City  of  London 

1584. 

Humphrey  Powell  carried  on  the  first  printing  office  at 
Dublin,    1551-66. 

From   the  great   perfection   to  which  the   liturgies,   or    books 


120 


The  Book. 


of  hours,  had  been  brought  by  Vostre,  Verard,  and  others  in 
France,  it  is  not  perhaps  extraordinary  that  the  service  books 
for  English  use  should  have  been  mostly  printed  abroad. 
Those  for  Salisbury  and  York  were  produced  at  Paris,  Rouen, 
and  Antwerp.  A  Salisbury  Primer  in  English  was  printed  by 
John  Kyngston  and  Henry  Sutton  in  1557,  and  Wynkyn 
de  Worde    printed  a    York  Manual  in   1509. 


>—     1    ^  "1 

; 

1 

111!!''     t      1  Iv    V)  m  H  \  ^.*--lT1 

|iMKM^//| 

^^ 

^^^^^^^^       "^^^s^ 

" - 

HANS'HOIBEK           QS*^^ 

- 

Fig.  71. — Woodcut  by  Hans  Holbein  from  Cranmer's 
Catechism,  1 548. 


Translations  from  the  classics  were  popular,  and  in  the 
second  half  of  the  century  arose  that  passion  for  voyage  and 
travel  which  has  so  largely  contributed  to  the  wealth  and 
extension  of  England.  This  was  begun  by  Eden's  translation 
of  Peter  Martyr's  Decades  of  flie  New  World;  or,  West  India, 
London,  1555,  quarto,  followed  by  Hakluyt's  Pi'incipall  Naviga- 
tions, Voyages,  and  Discoveries,  15  89,  folio.  Many  accounts 
of  single  voyages  and  discoveries  were  issued,  and  the  taste 
thus  created  culminated  in  the  establishment  of  the  East  India 
Company  in  the  last  year  of  the  century. 

The  first  specimen  of  copperplate  engraving  for  books  in 
England  is  a  frontispiece  to  Galen's  De  Teviperamentis,  printed 
at     Cambridge     1521  ;    but     the     number    of    books    containing 


The  Exglish  Prixters.  121 

copperplates  engraved  before  1600  is  extremely  limited,  the 
most  notable  being  portraits  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  Lord 
Leicester,  and  Lord  Burleigh  in  Archbishop  Parker's  Bible 
of  1568;  Saxton's  Atlas,  1579,  the  first  atlas  in  England; 
Harrington's  translation  of  Ariosto,  1591,  vvith  forty-seven 
engraved   plates. 

The  first  printer  at  Cambridge  was  John  Siberch,  1521. 
Peter  of  Treves  established  himself  at  Southwark  in  15 14. 
Among  his  productions  is  a  Higden's  Polych7'onicon,  1527, 
folio.  John  Oswen  printed  at  Ipswich  1538,  and  among  the 
English  towns  in  which  printers  established  themselves  in  the 
century  were  York,  Canterbury,  Tavistock,  Norwich,  and 
Worcester. 

The  establishment  of  the  Reformed  Church,  and  the 
diffusion  of  education  among  the  people  which  followed,  created 
an  original  English  school  of  literature  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  this  gave  employment  and  great  impetus  to  typography 
in  England,  so  that  by  the  time  we  reach  the  end  of  the 
century  we  find  a  great  improvement  in  the  art  of  the  Book, 
to  be  carried  to  still  greater  perfection  in  the  next. 

In  France,  on  the  contrary,  we  find  an  enormous  commerce 
in  books  at  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century.  All 
the  publishers  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chapter  were  still 
living,  and  labouring  under  the  effects  of  the  French  con- 
quests in  Italy.  The  dithyrambic  literature  then  inaugurated, 
and  which  reached  its  zenith  under  Louis  XIV.,  exercised  a 
bad  influence  equally  upon  the  printers  and  decorators  of  the 
Book.  Doubtless  the  composition  of  the  text  and  engravings 
was  done  hastily,  for  the  great  people  did  not  like  to  wait  for 
this  kind  of  books.  Le  Vergier  d Honneur,  written  by  Octa- 
vian  de  St.  Gelais  and  Andry  de  la  Vigne,  was  thus  published 


123  •  The  Book. 

about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  ornamented  with 
hasty  vignettes,  probably  at  the  expense  of  Antoine  Vérard. 
Upon  the  accession  to  the  throne  of  Louis  XII.,  Claude  de 
Seyssel,  his  master  of  council,  composed  Les  Louenges  du  Roy 
Lotas  XII.  in  Latin,  and  soon  after  translated  it  into  French 
for  the  same  Vérard,   who  printed   it   in    1508. 

The  taste  for  the  history  of  the  Gauls  induced  the  pub- 
lishers to  reproduce  La  Mer  des  Histoires,  which  had  already 
been  published  in  the  fifteenth  century  ;  Thielman  Kerver  put 
forth  the  Compendium  of  Robert  Gaguin  in  1500  on  account 
of  Durand  Gerlier  and  Jean  Petit.  The  French  version  of 
this  work  was  given  in  15 14  by  Galliot  du  Pré,  with  vig- 
nettes, and  afterwards  under  the  name  of  Mirouer  Historial, 
by  Renaud  Chaudière  in  1520,  by  Nyverd,  and  others;  the 
same  with  the  Rozier  Historial,  with  figures,  in  1522  and  1528. 
Among  the  most  popular  works  was  the  Illustrations  de  la 
Cattle  et  Singularitez  de  Troys,  by  Jean  le  Maire  de  Belges, 
printed  everywhere  in  Paris  and  ornamented.  In  15 12  it  was 
published  by  Geoffroy  de  Marnef,  in  15 15  by  Jean  and  Gilbert 
de  Marnef,  by  Regnault,  by  Philippe  le  Noir  (whose  curious  mark 
we  here  reproduce,  and  who  also  printed  a  hundred  admoni- 
tions in  four  hundred  lines  of  verse,  for  the  guidance  of  a  true 
knight,  viz..  Les  Cent  Hystoires  de  Troye,  1522,  and  a  Hystoire 
dti  Sainct  Greaal,  1523),  and  others,  always  in  the  Gothic 
characters  which  still  prevailed  in  France  at  the  beginning  of 
the  sixteenth  century. 

We  give  from  the  Illustrations  de  la  Cattle  of  Jean  le  Maire 
an  interesting  woodcut  (Fig.  •]-^  representing  Queen  Anne  of 
Brittany  as  Juno,  in  which  we  can  without  much  difficulty  trace 
the  hand  of  a  Bourdichon  or  a  Perréal.  The  truly  French  style 
of   this    figure  leaves   no  doubt   as  to   its  origin.     At    the  same 


The  Frexch  Book  Illustrators. 


I -'3 


time,  it  may  possibly  have  been  inspired  by  the  Virgin  of  a 
German  master,  say  one  of  1466,  judging  from  the  accessories, 
and  even  from  the  pose.  This  engraving  will  be  found  in  the 
edition  of  1512  of  Gilbert  de  Marnef,  in  Gothic  letter,  quarto. 
On  the  reverse  are  the  arms  and  device  of  Jean  le  Maire  de 
Belges. 

The  time  that  elapsed  from  the  death  of  Louis  XI.  until  the 
accession   of    Francis    I. — that    is   to  say,    from     1483    to    1515 — 


Fig.  72. — Mark  of  Philippe  le  Noir,  printer  at  Paris,  1536. 

was,  to  employ  an  old  expression,  the  golden  age  of  French 
printing  and  illustration.  Under  Charles  VIII.  and  Louis  XII. 
the  designers  on  wood  were  not  yet  affected  by  the  neighbour- 
ing schools  ;  neither  the  accentuated  Italian  influence  nor 
the  German  processes  had  reached  them  ;  they  reproduced 
what  they  saw,  and  they  did  it  in  their  own  fashion  and 
manner,  without  foreign  influence.  Neither  did  the  kings 
ignore    them,  for   Louis    XII.    preserved   to  the    printers  of  the 


124 


The  Book. 


university    all    their    rights     and     privileges    in     a     magniloquent 
■ordinance,   in    which    the  art  of  typography  was  extolled   in  the 


pio-.  7j. — Vignette  taken  from  the  Illustrations  dc  la  Gallic  ct  Sfiigiilan'te:  de  Tioye. 
Queen  Anne  of  Brittanj-  as  Juno. 


highest    terms.       It    restores    to    them    all    the    advantages    they 
had  lost.     For  instance,  it  recites,  "In  consideration  of  the  great 


The  Frexch  Book  Illustrators.  125. 

benefit  that  has  come  to  our  kingdom  by  means  of  the  art  and 
science  of  printing,  the  invention  of  which  seems  more  Divine 
than  human,  which,  thanks  to  God,  has  been  invented  and  found 
in  our  time  by  the  help  and  industry  of  booksellers,  by  which 
our  holy  Catholic  faith  has  been  greatly  augmented  and 
strengthened,  justice  better  understood  and  administered,  and 
Divine  service  more  honourably  and  diligently  made,  said,  and 
celebrated,  ...  by  means  of  which  our  kingdom  precedes 
all  others,"  etc.,  etc.     (Blois,  9th  April,    1513). 

Certainly   Louis   made  the  best  of  himself  and  his  kingdom 


Fig.  74. — Mark  of  François  Juste,  printer  at  Lyons, 
15-6.     Printer  of  i?rtif/«îi. 

in  this  preamble,  but  it  must  be  recognised  that  F"rance  already 
held  a  predominant  rank  in  the  new  industry,  and  that  except 
from  the  Italians  she  had  no  fear  of  serious  rivalry.  The  school 
of  ornamentists  made  constant  progress,  not  to  forget  Guillaume 
Eustace,  who  published  some  very  fine  works,  missals  and 
books  of  hours,  with  woodcuts  ;  and  François  Juste,  the 
printer  of  Rabelais  and  a  translation  of  Sebastian  Brandt's  La 
Grâd  nef  des  fob  du  Monde.  Before  the  books  of  hours,  the 
booksellers  contented  themselves  with  miserable  blocks,  placed 
side  by  side,  forming  a  framework  of  good  and  bad  together  ; 
but     after    Simon    Vostre,    Vérard,     and    the    others    thev    had 


126 


The  Book. 


remarkably  improved.  The  borders,  at  least  in  the  books  of 
hours,  had  become  the  principal  part  of  the  book  ;  they  were 
composed  of  flowers,  architectural,  complicated,  and  simple  sub- 
jects, all  of  perfect  taste  and  extreme  elegance  ;  and,  as  we  have 
observed  with  regard  to  the  representation  of  Anne  of  Brittany 
in  the  Illustrations  de  la  Gaulc,  the  figure  subjects  were  no 
longer    mechanical,    commonplace,    and     tiresome     blocks,     but, 


Fig.  75. — Mark  of  Guillaume  Eustace,  1517, 
binder  and  bookseller  at  Paris. 


on    the    contrary,     more    often    works    specially    designed    and 
engraved  by  artists  of  merit. 

Geoffroy  Tory,  born  at  Bourges  in  1480,  continued  after 
Vostre  and  Vérard  the  onward  march  of  illustration  of  the 
Book.  He  was  a  sort  of  encyclopsedist,  who  knew  and  fore- 
saw everything,  but  with  a  singularly  subtler  and  finer  genius 
than  his  predecessors.     There  is  now  very  little   doubt  that  by 


Geoffroy  Tory. 


127 


trade  Tory  was  an  engraver  and  printer.  However,  he  pub- 
lished with  Jean  Petit  one  of  his  first  volumes,  The  Geography 
of  Pomponiiis  Mela,  in  1 507,  and  Gilles  de  Gourmont  printed 
it.       Tory    was    thus     an    erudite     and    diffusive    commentator. 


Fig.  76. — Title  of  tlie  Entree  d'Eleonorc  d'Autriche  à 
Paris,  by  Guillaume  Bochetel.  Printed  by  Geoffroy 
Tory  in  Maj',  1531,  quarto. 

He  published  later  a  book  with  poor  engravings,  entitled. 
Valent  Probi  Grainniatici  Opusczilum,  1510,  waiting  until  his 
good  star  should  place  him  on  the  right  road. 

He  had    for  his    mark,   say   the    bibliographers,    the    cross  of 


128 


The  Book. 


Lorraine  (jl),  small  enough  to  be  lost  in  the  ornamentation  of 
his  plates.  In  fact  this  sign  is  to  be  found  again  in  Tory's 
mark — the  "  Pot  Cassé  " — the  broken  jar — and  also  sometimes  in 
the  letter  G,  which  was  his  ordinary  signature.  This  opinion, 
which  we  will  not  try  to  contradict  in  a  popular  work  like  this, 
appears  to  us  to  err,  as  others  used  this  mark,  as  may  be 
judged  from  the  essentially  different  touches  of  engravings  bear- 
ing the  cross  of  Lorraine,  and  particularly  those  of  Woériot  in 
the  middle  of  the  century. 


Fig.  77.— Mark  of  Geoflroy  Tory, 
printer  at  Paris,  1529. 

If  M.  A.  Bernard*  may  be  crediteJ,  Geoffroy  Tory  culti- 
vated all  the  sciences  with  equal  success.  For  our  purjDose, 
suffice  it  to  assign  to  him  the  first  place  in  the  art  of  decora- 
tion of  books  of  hours.  Doubtless  his  travels  in  Italy 
had  contributed  to  modify  his  taste  and  to  draw  him  aside 
from  the  sober  and  simple  manner  that  then  characterised 
French  engraving  ;    but  he    nevertheless    preserved  the  indelible 

*   Geoffroy  Tory,  Peintre  et  Graveur,  Premier  Imprimeur  Royal,  Réformateur 
de  r  Orthographe  et  de  la  Typographie  :  Paris,  1S57,  8^"0- 


Geoffroy  Tory 


129 


traces  of  his  original  style,  in  the  same  way  as  some  people  can- 
not divest  themselves  of  their  pro\incial  accent.     The  Heures  de 


Fig.  7S. — Full  page  of  the  Heures  of  Simon  de  Colines,  b3-  Tory. 

la  Vicrgc,  which  he  designed,  and  which  he  had  engraved  about 
1520,  for  account  of  Simon  de  Colines,  is  marvellously  surrounded 
by  ornaments,  until  then   unknown   in  France  ;   at  the  same  time, 


130 


The  Book. 


and  in  spite  of  other  tendencies,  it  is  purely  a  French  work,  and 
the  specimen  given  here  is  a  convincing  proof.  We  should 
not  here  omit  to  mention  the  remarkable  collection  of  Voyages, 
in    fact   the    first    which    deserves    this    designation,    printed   by 


Fig. 


-Heures  of  Geoffroy  Tory.     The  Circumcision. 


Simon  de  Colines,  under  the  title  of  Extrait  07i  Recueil  des 
tôles  nouvellement  tj-ojivées  en  la  grand  mer  Oceatie  on  temps  du 
roy  Despaigne  Fernâd  et  Elisabeth  sa  femme  {1532).  This 
rare  work  fetched  at  the  Eeckford  Sale  _;^  126. 

Geoffroy   Tory    wrote  a    curious    book,    half   poetic    and  half 


Geoffroy  Tory. 


131 


learned,  in  which  he  studied  at  the  same  time  tlie  form  of  the 
letter  from  the  typographic  and  the  emblematic  point  of  view, 
and  also  the  French  orthography  of  the  time.-  He  tells  us  himself 
that  he  set  about  to  commence  this  book  on  the  twelfth  night, 
1523,  when,  after  a  frugal  repast,  he  was,  he  says,  "dreaming 
on  my  bed  and  revolving  my  memory,  thinking  of  a  thousand 
little  fancies,   serious  and  gay,   among  which    I   thought  of  some 


SDECOLINES 


Fig.  80. — Mark  of  Sirron  de  Colines, 
printer  at  Paris,  1527. 

antique  letters  that  I  had  made  for  Monseigneur  the  treasurer 
for  war,  Master  Jehan  Grolier,  councillor  and  secretary  of  our 
lord  the  King,  amateur  of  fine  letters  and  of  all  learned  per- 
sonages." Tory  called  his  book  Chaynpfleury,  auquel  est  contenu 
tart  et  science  de  hi  deue  proportion  des  lettres  .  .  .  se/ou  le  corps 
et  le  visage  humain,  and  he  published  it  himself  in  small  folio, 
putting  upon   it  the  sign  of  Gilles  de   Gourmont,   in    1529. 

In    reality    Tory   had    been     fascinated    by     the    theories    of 


132 


THE  Book. 


Dilrer  on  the  proportions  of  the  human  body  ;  for  he  says, 
"Albert  Durer,  the  noble  German  painter,  is  greatly  to  be 
praised  in  that    he  has  so  w(;ll   brought    his    skill   in  painting  to 


I 


Fig.  8l. — Hemes  of  Simon  de  Colines,  with  tlic  mark  of 
the  Cross  of  Lorraine. 


bear  on  the  designing  of  geometrical  forms,  the  ramparts  of 
war,  and  the  proportions  of  the  human  body."  He  wished  thus 
to  indicate  to  his  contemporaries  the  true  measure  of  letters, 
"  the  number    of  points   and    turns    of    the     compass    that  each 


Geoffroy  Tory.  '  133 

one  requires."  The  most  amusing  part  of  this  curious  treatise 
is  his  short  academical  preface,  where,  with  sportive  fancy, 
the  great  pubHsher  studies  the  orthography  of  his  time,  and 
exclaims  against  the  coiners  of  new  words,  the  Latinisers  of  the 
language,  "the  skimmers  of  Latin,  jesters  and  gibberers,  .  .  . 
who  mock  not  only  their  shadows,  but  themselves."  The 
entire    passage   was   copied  by  Rabelais,   nearly   literally,    and  he 


Fig.  82. — Emblematical  letter  Y,  taken  fron 
the  Clmmpflenry  of  Geoffroy  Tory. 


indicates    that  its  author   was   possessed  of   good    sense,    which, 
unhappily,  all  his  contemporaries  were  not. 

He  added  to  his  theories  a  number  of  designs  of  geometrical 
letters,  technically  considered,  but  he  was  afterwards  carried 
away  in  the  train  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  as  was  then 
the  fashion,  perhaps  a  little  further  than  he  meant,  losing  him- 
self in  a  crowd  of  idle  dissertations.  To  these  geometrical 
engravings  he  added  small  and  charming  figures,  which  he  said 
were  by  Jean    Perréal,    as  well    as    emblematical    letters    of    the 


134  The  Book. 

nature  of  the  Y  which  is  here  given,  with  explanatory  text 
and  commentary.  His  Y  had  two  branches  :  one  of  virtue 
and  the  other  of  vice  ;  that  of  virtue  carries  palms,  crowns,  a 
sceptre,  and  a  book  ;  that  of  vice,  birches,  a  dagger,  a  gallows,, 
and  fire. 

With  the  importance  that  cannot  be  denied  to  his  works, 
Geoffroy  Tory  founded  a  school  ;  and  it  was  from  his  work- 
shop that  the  plates  came  for  the  book  of  Paulus  jovius  on 
the  dukes  of  Milan,  published  by  Robert  Estienne  in  1549,  4to. 
The  portraits  of  the  dukes  in  this  work  have  been  attributed  to 
Tory  himself,  but  he  died  in  1533,  and  there  is  not  the  least 
indication  that  he  engraved  these  sixteen  portraits  with  his 
own  hand  sixteen  years  before  their  publication.  Besides, 
our  doubt  as  to  the  cross  of  Lorraine  being  the  exclusive 
signature  of  Tory,  as  has  been  believed,  leads  us  to  think  it  the 
collective  mark  of  a  workshop,  for  we  meet  it  on  works  long 
after  the  death  of  the  master.  As  a  proof  the  mark  is  found 
on  the  engravings  of  L' Entrée  du  Roi  à  Pans  (Roffet  in  4to) 
in  1549,  which  cannot  be  taken  as  a  posthumous  work  of  Tory, 
for  these  engravings  had  their  origin  at  a  certain  particular 
date.  But  in  spite  of  the  absence  of  the  monogram,  the 
admirable  block  from  the  Diodorus  Siculus  of  Antoine  Macault 
might,  from  its  design  and  engraving,  be  considered  as  by  Tory 
himself.  Holbein — who,  about  the  same  time,  designed  a  some- 
what similar  scene,  where  the  King  of  France,  seated  on 
a  throne,  received  poison  from  the  hands  of  Death — never  did 
anything  better.  Within  the  scanty  proportions  of  the  design,  all 
the  figures  are  portraits.  Duprat,  Montmorency  and  the  three 
sons  of  the  King  may  be  recognised  ;  Macault,  on  the  left,  is 
reading  his  translation  to  a  circle  of  nobles  and  men  of  letters. 
This  admirable  woodcut,  too  little  known,  is  one  of  the  truest  and 


Geoffroy  Tory. 


135 


most  skilful  of  the  monuments  of  French  engraving  ;  it  is  equal 
to  the  best  inventions  of  Holbein,  which  have  never  exceeded 
it,   and  it   marks   the  culminating  point  of  the   illustration  of  the 


Fig.  S3. — Macault  reading  to  Francis  1.  his  translation  of  Diodorus  Siculus. 
Wood  engraving  attributed  to  Tory. 

Book  before  the  exaggerations  of  the  school  of  Fontainebleau. 
Geoffroy  Tory  was  not  the  publisher.  The  Diodorus  Siculus, 
doubtless  prepared  two  or  three  years  before,   was  not  published 


136  The  Book. 

until  1535,  in  quarto,  with  his  ordinary  mark  of  the  Pot 
Cassé.  The  original  magnificent  manuscript  on  vellum,  trom 
the  Hamilton  collection,  of  this  celebrated  book,  with  the  minia- 
tures by  Geoffroy  Tory,  was  sold  lately  for  the  sum  of  ^r.ooo. 
We  have  now  arrived  through  him  to  the  middle  of  the 
reign  of  Francis  I.,  who  was  called  the  father  of  letters,  and 
who  for  various  reasons  favoured  the  arts.  Doubtless  grand 
paintings  and  the  decoration  of  the  royal  palaces  attracted  him 
more  than  vignettes  in  books  or  the  efforts  of  printers  ;  but, 
at  the  same  time,  books  interested  him.  He  studied  much,  and 
even  had  books  sent  after  him  in  his  travels.  An  account  in 
the  French  National  Archives  shows  that  Claude  Chappuis,  his 
librarian,  and  bookseller,  packed  entire  cases,  which  were  sent 
after  him  to  Dauphiné  at  the  time  of  the  wars  of  Piedmont, 
the  carriage  costing  twenty  livres  tournois.  Francis  was 
subject,  moreover,  to  sudden  outbreaks  of  curious  fits  of 
wantonness  and  mischief  It  was  perceived  a  little  later 
that  the  doctrines  of  Luther  were  propagated  by  the  Book  ; 
and  the  Sorbonne  was  up  in  arms.  She  even  attempted  to 
impose  her  own  expurgated  text  of  the  Bible  on  the  publishers, 
to  the  exclusion  of  all  others.  Theodore  Beza,  an  enemy  of  the 
Sorbonnists,  said  with  regard  to  this,  with  all  the  amenity 
which   characterizes  him  : 

"  Nos  grandz  docteurs  au  chérubin  visage 
Ont  défendu  qu'homme  n'ait  plus  à  voir 
La  Saincte  Bible  en  vulgaire  language 
Dont  un  chascun  peut  congnoissance  avoir  ; 
Car,  disent  ils,  désir  de  tout  savoir 
N'engendre  rien  qu'erreur,  peur  et  souci  .   .  . 
Argtio  sic,  s'il  en  est  doncques  ainsi 
Que  pour  l'abus  il  faille  oster  ce  livre, 
Il  est  tout  clair  qu'on  leur  devroit  aussi 
Oster  la  vin  dont  chascun  d'eux  s'enivre." 


Robert  Estiexxe.  .  137 

This  piece  is  only  cited  to  show  to  what  lengths  matters 
had  gone,  thanks  to  printing.  It  is  very  certain  that  all  the 
pamphlets,  placards,  and  other  horrors  published  to  raise 
religious  warfare,  did  not  at  all  further  the  progress  of  the 
Book.  The  king  was  not,  however,  indifferent  to  the  technical 
question  ;  books  merited  encouragement,  at  least  as  much  as 
chastisement,  and  besides,  as  time  passed  on,  gradually  trans- 
formed men  and  ideas.  In  spite  of  his  apparent  severities,  was 
not  the  King  himself  a  little  affected  by  coming  in  contact 
with  the  new  religion,  like  his  sister  Marguerite,  or  his  sister- 
in-law,    Renée  of  Ferrara  ? 


Fig.  84. —Robert  Estienne,  after  the  engraving 
in  the  Chronologie  Colke. 

However  that  may  be,  he  twice  showed  himself  a  resolute 
partisan  of  the  celebrated  Robert  Estienne,  son-in-law  and 
associate  of  Simon  de  Colines,  whose  work  in  point  of  erudition 
and  typography  assumed  from  day  to  day  more  importance. 
Robert  Estienne  had  the  great  honour  of  being  chosen  from 
all  his  contemporaries  by  King  Francis  as  the  royal  printer. 
This  prince  had  ordered  him  to  have  engraved  by  Claude 
Garamond,  after  the  caligraphic  design  of  Ange  V^ergèce,  the 
first  cutter  of  matrices  of  his  time,  a  special  Greek  character  in 
three  sizes,  which  was  used  in  1544  to  compose  the  Ecclesias- 
tical History  of  Eusebius.  These  were  the  famous  royal  types 
— iypi  regii — the  use  of  which   Estienne  did  not  fail  to  mention 


138 


The  Book. 


on  the  title-pages  of  his  works.  These  types  gave  room  for 
reflection  and  something  to  write  about,  since  Francis  I.  founded 
the  Royal  Printing  House,  but  the  truth  is  that  Estienne  kept 
these  characters  in  his  own  office  for  use  in  the  royal  editions  ; 
and  they  may  now  be  seen  in  the  Imprimerie  Nationale  at 
Paris,  where  they  are  kept. 

Robert    Estienne    married    the    daughter    of  Josse    Badius  of 
Asch — Badius  Asccncianiis,  one  of  the  first  Parisian  typographers 


Fig.  85. — Mark  of  Robert  Estienne,  printer  at  Pans,  1541. 

of  the  time.  We  reproduce  the  mark  of  Badius  (Fig.  87), 
representing  the  interior  of  a  printing  house,  and  shall  return 
in  a  special  chapter  to  the  functions  of  these  workshops. 
Meantime  it  appeared  proper  to  present  to  the  reader  a 
printing  office  at  the  time  of  Robert  Estienne  and  Geoffroy 
Tory. 

Robert  Estienne  does  not  appear  to  have  concerned  himself 
much  about  the  decoration  of  the  Book.  The  purity  of  the 
text  and  the  characters  were  essentials  with  him,  erudition,  and 


Robert  Est/exxi-:. 


139 


not  art.  He  published  many  works  in  Latin  and  Greek,  among 
them  the  T/iesauriis,  a  great  Latin  dictionary  published  in 
1532,  also  a  Bible,  with  notes  by  Vatable,  revised  by  Leon  de 
Juda.  Hence  his  trouble!  Leon  de  Juda  being  a  partisan 
of  Zwingli,  the  Sorbonne  accused  the  Bible  of  leaning  towards 
the  Huguenots;  Francis  L  took  the  part  of  Estienne,  but 
when  that  prince  died  Estienne  fled  to  Geneva,  where  he  was 
accused  of  having  taken  the  royal  types  with  him.  The  truth 
was  that  he  simply  carried  off  the  matrices. 


Kig.  86. — Mark  of  François  Estienne,  printer  at  Paris,  1538. 

At  this  time  everything  served  for  the  decoration  of  the 
Book  :  there  were  portraits,  blazons,  topographical  plates, 
costumes,  and  emblems.  Small  portraits  engraved  on  wood 
usually  ornamented  the  works  of  the  poets,  like  that  of  Nicholas 
Bourbon,  for  example,  a  marvel  of  truth  and  skill.  The  blocks 
of  frontispieces  in  the  folios  were  multiplied  ;  large  initial 
letters,  ingeniously  engraved  and  stippled,  like  that  at  the 
commencement  of  this  chapter,  were  used.  Jacques  Kerver 
reproduced  in    1545    for  himself,  and  with   plates  made   for  him,. 


140 


The  Book. 


the  famous  Songe  de  Foliphile,  published  by  Aldus  in  1499. 
The  widow  of  the  publisher  Denis  Janot,  Jeanne  de  Marnef, 
published  one  of  the  most  delightful  books  of  the  time, 
L'Amour  de  Cupidon  et  de  Psyche  of  Apuleius,  with  delicious 
figures  on  wood  after  Italian  engravings.  How  many  more 
might  we  not  name  in  the  extraordinary  profusion  of  charming 
books  ! 

Without  entering    into  detail,   something   must  be  said  about 


Pig.  87. — Printing  office  of  Josse  Badius  at  the 
commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

Lyons,  then  a  most  extensive  and  prosperous  centre  of  book- 
selling. Lyons  had  the  signal  honour  of  being  the  first  to 
publish  in  France  the  celebrated  cuts  of  the  Dance  of  Death  of 
Holbein,  the  Basle  painter.  Doubtless  Treschel,  the  printer,  was 
not  the  first,  although  a  copy  of  a  German  edition  is  not  known, 
because  in  the  Lyons  edition  the  cuts  are  already  worn  and 
broken.  However,  the  Cabinet  d'Estampes  of  Paris  has  some 
of  the  figures  of  the  Dance  with  a  German  text,  probably 
printed  from  the  type  of  Froben  at   Basle.     Treschel's  title  was 


The  School  of  Bas/j:. 


141 


Les  Simulachres  ct  Historiées  Faces  dc  la  Mort  agitant  clegam- 
iiiciit  poîtrtraictes  que  artificiellement  imaginées,  and  the  volume 
in  quarto  was  printed  by  Frelon.  The  Icônes  veteris  Testa- 
metiti  which  preceded  the  publication  of  the  Dance  of  Death, 
had  also  been  printed  at  Basle  with  those  of  Lyons,  as  M. 
Georges  Duplessis  states  in  a  notice  on  the  different  editions 
of  this  work. 

With    Holbein,    as    with    Geoffroy    Tory,    we    arrive    at .  the 


Fig.  SS. — Portrait  of  Nicholas  Bourbon.     Wood  engraving 
ot  the  commencement  ot  the  sixteenth  century'. 


zenith  of  illustration  and  marvellous  skill  of  the  engraver. 
It  was  Hans  Lutzelburger  who  cut  the  blocks  after  the  designs 
of  the  Basle  master,  but,  if  we  were  to  institute  comparisons, 
contrary  to  what  generally  happens,  the  translator  reaches 
almost  to  the  height  of  his  model  ;  the  line  is  perfection  itself, 
it  is  precise  and  intelligent,  simple,  and,  withal,  e.xplicit.  If  the 
work  of  Lutzelburger  be  admitted,  it  must  also  be  admitted 
that  Holbein  designed  his  cuts  on  wood  before  1526,  the  date 
of  the  death  of  the  Basle  engraver,  for  it  was  immediately  before 


142 


THE  Book. 


1526  that  Holbein  lived  in  Basle,  and  it  was  afterwards  that 
he  travelled.  We  can  add  nothing  to  the  universal  praise  of 
the  book  of  Treschel,  of  Lyons  ;  every  detail  has  been  written  of 
Holbein,  and  repetitions  are  unnecessary.  We  would  ask  the 
reader  to  compare  the  Francis  I.  of  Tory  and  the  King  in 
Holbein's  Dance  of  Death  ;  there  is  a  certain  family  resemblance 
between  the  two  cuts,  which  is  a  singular  honour  for  Tory. 
At  the  commencement  of  the  century   Basle  must    have    had 


Fig.  89. — King  and  Death.     Vignette  from  the 
Dance  of  Dentil  by  Holbein. 

a  school  of  Forinschneiders  working  for  export.  Besides  the 
numerous  products  used  at  Lyons,  it  had  also  a  trade  in  cliches, 
illustrations,  which,  having  been  used,  were  sold  again.  Among 
these  exchanges  of  engravings  were  many  plates  of  Brandt's 
Ship  of  Fools,  sold  in  1520  to  Galliot  du  Pré,  publisher,  of 
Paris,  who  used  them  in  the  Eloge  de  la  Folie  of  Erasmus. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  these  blocks  had  a  singular  life,  and 
a  great  success,  for  Galliot  du  Pré  builds  his  hopes  upon  them  : 


A  LCI  ATI  s  Emblems.  143 

"Va  et  cours  selon  tes  fortunes, 
Follie  !    simulant  tes  faces  ; 
Mais  quelques  choses  que  tu  fasses, 
Rapporte  force  de  pécunes." 

The  reign  of  Francis  I.  saw  a  great  advance  in  the  national 
art  of  illustration.  The  arrival  at  the  court  of  Italian  artists 
of  the  decadence,  such  as  Rosso  and  Primaticcio,  produced  a 
revolution  in  taste.  The  exaggerated  slightness  of  the  figures 
brought  by  these  artists  from  beyond  the  Alps  was  considered 
as  of  supreme  distinction  ;  one  saw  in  their  twisted  draperies 
and  mannered  poses  some  undefined  and  precious  beauty  that 
tempted  the  ready  intelligence  of  the  court  of  France.  The 
simple  and  ingenuous  figures  of  the  old  French  artists  were 
ranked  among  the  refuse  of  another  age,  and  their  compositions 
were  regarded  with  contempt,  and  deemed  antique. 

The  rage  for  emblems  and  for  allegories  and  mythological 
figures  generally  was  well  suited  to  these  eccentric  and  bizarre 
inventions.  On  the  other  hand,  an  entire  class  of  artists  or 
artisans,  book  illustrators  first,  then  enamellers  and  jewellers, 
seized  on  these  Italian  models,  with  which  the  King  encum- 
bered his  galleries,  and  which,  at  great  expense,  covered  the 
walls  of  Fontainebleau.  One  can  understand  what  skilful  men 
could  make  of  such  a  movement  and  of  so  thoughtless  an 
infatuation.  The  publishers  put  themselves  to  work,  and 
composed  works  of  which  the  sale  was  assured  from  the 
ideas  that  they  furnished  to  other  designers.  This  explains 
the  quantity  of  Alciati's  Emblems  and  Ovid's  Hfeiainorpkoses, 
published  at  Lyons  and  Paris,  and  copied  and  recopied  by  the 
art  industries  of  the  time  Without  it  the  enormous  success 
of  such  mediocre  productions  as  the  Emblems,  in  which  the 
meaning  of  the  enigma  or  rebus  cannot  always  be  graspd,  is  ill 


144 


IHE    BOOK. 


understood.  It  was  Alciati  who  made  this  literature  the  fashion. 
He  was  a  sort  of  Epicurean  jurisconsult  and  miser,  at  once  a 
Gargantua    and    a     Harpagon,     who    had    as    many    lords    and 


%^^\ 


Fig.  90.— Page  of  the  Metamorphoses  of  Ovid,  t  j'  Petit  Bernard.     Edition  of  1564. 

masters  on  earth,  as  there  were  kings  and  princes  who  would 
bid  against  each  other  to  engage  him.  He  had  quitted  Italy, 
seduced  by  the  offers  of  Francis  I.,  but  when  Sforza   paid    him 


''Le  Petit  Berxard."  145 

a  larger  sum,  he  returned,  giving  as  reason  for  his  vacillation 
that  the  sun  had  to  travel  round  the  earth  and  warm  it  by  its 
rays  ;  this  was  an  emblematic  answer,  for  his  emblems  had  all 
the  coarse,  sceptical,  facetious  humour  of  which  few  were  then 
the  dupes.  At  most  these  philosophical  aphorisms,  when  they 
represented  to  be  serious,  have  their  droll  side  in  that  their 
author  often  practised  the  reverse  of  his  teaching.  A  miser 
himself,  he  abuses  the  avaricious  ;  leaving  his  country  for  the 
love  of  gain,  he  blames  those  to  whom  "  a  better  condition  is 
offered  by  foreigners."  Yet  he  is  sometimes  logical  and  consis- 
tent, as  when  he  assures  us  that  "  poverty  hinders  genius  to 
succeed,"  and  when,  finally,  lover  of  good  cheer,  he  died  of 
indigestion  in    1550. 

His  book  of  Emùicins  had  a  vogue  that  lasted  until  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  repetitions  were  infinitely  multiplied  : 
at  Paris  by  Wechel  in  1534  ;  at  Lyons  by  Hans  de  Tornes, 
who  came  from  Suabia,  one  of  the  greatest  Lyons  publishers  ; 
by  Roville,  also  one  of  the  first  Lyons  publishers,  and  by 
Bonhomme  ;  at  Venice  by  the  Alduses  ;  in  fact,  everywhere, 
translated   into  French,    Spanish,  and   Italian. 

Bernard  Salomon,  called  Le  Petit  Bernard,  born  at  Lyons, 
was  one  of  the  designers  of  the  school  of  Fontainebleau — that 
is  to  say,  of  the  Franco-Italian  school  of  which  we  have 
spoken  above — who  furnished  many  of  the  engravings  for 
books  printed  at  Lyons.  He  illustrated  the  edition  of  Alciati's 
Eiiibleins  published  by  Bonhomme  in  1560  ;  and  designed 
skilful  little  plates,  which,  with  the  te.xt,  were  surrounded  by 
a  border  from  the  workshop  of  Geoffroy  Tory,  for  Ovid's 
j\Ictamorphoses,  published  by  Hans  de  Tornes  in  1564. 
Bernard  had  all  the  defects  and  all  the  good  qualities  of  those 
of  his  time,    from   Jean  Cousin    to  the    least    of   them  ;    he    was 

10 


146 


Tue  Book. 


a  Primaticcio  on  a  small  scale,  but  agreeably  so.  His  designs 
for  the  y^t'zi'  Testament  were  also  very  careful,  but  in  them 
more  than  elsewhere  the  manner  and  the  affectation  of  the 
school    of  Fontainebleau    are    apparent. 


Fig.  91. — Portraits  of  Madeleine,  Queen  of  Scotland,  and  of  Marguerite,  Duclicss  of  Savoj- 
after  the  originals  of  Cornelis  of  Lyons. 

The  workshops  of  the  second  city  of  France,  we  see,  had 
at  this  time  attained  considerable  importance  ;  but  before  the 
books  of  which  we  are  about  to  speak,  Roville  published  two 
anonymous  books,  one  L'Entrée  du   Roi  Henri  II.  à   Lyon,  in 


Fig.  92. — Portraits  of  Francis,  Dauphin,  and  of  Charles,  Duke  of  Angouleme,  after  the  originals 
of  Cornelis  of  Lyons.     Woodcuts  taken  from  Roville's  Promptiiairc  des  Médailles. 


1549,  ornamented  with  very  graceful  woodcuts,  the  other  the 
Promptnaire  des  Médailles,  comprising  a  series  of  charming  por- 
traits under  the  guise  of  reproductions  from  the  antique.  The 
designs   of  the  Entree  are  often  attributed   to    Jean   Cousin,    as 


CORXEUS   DE    LA    HAVE. 


147 


it  is  a  rule  with  certain  amateurs  to  give  a  known  name  to  a 
work  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  Lyons  then  had  cele- 
brated artists,  the  Petit-Bernard,  alluded  to  above,  and  Cornelis 
de  la  Haye,  of  whom  we  shall  have  more  to  say  ;  and  it  is 
therefore  not  necessary  to  go  to  Paris  or  to  Rome  to  find 
the  author  of  these  illustrations. 

Cornelis  de  la  Haye  was  a  painter  who  executed  nearly  the 


Fie-.  93. — Captain  of  foot,  from  the  Entree  ilc  Henri  II.  n  Lyon,  1549. 

same  work  as  François  Clouet  in  Paris,  portraits  on  panel,  in  a 
clear  and  harmonious  tone,  then  much  the  fashion.  During  a 
journey  of  the  King,  he  had,  if  Brantôme  may  be  credited, 
portrayed  the  entire  court,  keeping  the  sketches  for  himself. 
Ten  or  fifteen  years  after,  Catherine  de  Medicis,  passing 
through  Lyons,  saw  these  portraits  again  and  highly  praised 
them,  recognising  her  old  costumes,   wondering  at  the  courtiers 


148  The  Book. 

of  the  day,  who  had  never  seen  her  in  such  attire.  This  artist 
is  now  known,  thanks  to  various  works  that  have  been  found, 
among  others  two  portraits  of  the  sons  of  Francis  I.,  preserved 
by  Gaignières,  who  attributed  them  resolutely  to  Cornelis, 
doubtless  on  the  faith  of  inscriptions  that  have  disappeared. 
Both  of  them  were  engraved  on  wood  at  Lyons,  and  published 
in  Roville's  book  the  Promptuaire  des  Médailles,  mentioned 
above,  with  small  differences  of  detail  altogether  insignificant. 
It  is  not  impossible  then  that  Cornelis  designed  these  portraits 
and  that  they  were  drawn  by  him  on  wood  after  the  cabinet 
models  spoken  of  by  Brantôme.  The  delicate  figures  of  the 
Promptiiaire  are  the  work  of  a  master  ;  the  differences  men- 
tioned are  those  of  the  artist,  not  of  the  copyist,  who  would 
not  be  permitted  to  make  any  alterations.  It  is  the  first  time, 
we  believe,  that  these  comparisons  have  been  made  ;  they  will 
perhaps  help  the  learned  Lyonnais  to  pierce  the  mystery,  but 
in  any  case  our  suppositions  are  more  favourable  to  Cornelis 
de  la  Haye  than  to  the  fancies  of  Robert  Dumesnil  {^Peintre- 
graveur  Fra-nçais,  tome  vi.,  p.  343).  To  judge  by  the  four 
little  medallions  here  reproduced  (Figs.  91,  92)  the  art  of 
engraving  on  wood  was  rarely  more  skilful  than  in  these 
portraits.  What  is  there  astonishing  if  a  man  like  Cornelis 
had  designed  the  figures  of  the  Entree  de  Henri  II.  ?  In  any 
case,  why  should  we  choose  Jean  Cousin  rather  than  Le 
Petit-Bernard  ?  At  this  time,  we  know,  the  kings  had  their 
ordinary  painters  in  their  suite  ;  but  we  do  not  know  that 
Jean  Cousin  ever  followed  the  court  to  Lyons  in  1549,  as  he 
did  not  hold  an  official  position,   like  Clouet. 

This  artist,  however,  produced  well-authenticated  works  ; 
one  of  them  is  signed  and  initialed,  and  leaves  no  doubt  it  is 
the    Livre   de    Fersfectivc   de   Jehan    Cousin    Senonois,    Maistre 


]EAN   COUSIX. 


149 


Painctre,  published  in  1560  by  Jean  le  Royer,  printer  to  the 
King  for  mathematics.  This  profession  of  printer  for  mathe- 
matics had  its  difficulties  of  engraving,  for  Le  Royer  tells  us 
in  his  preface  that  he  had  himself  to  finish  the  plates  com- 
menced by  Albin  Olivier.  In  another  practical  treatise,  entitled 
Livre  de   Pot'traùure,  published  in    1593,   Jean  Cousin  is  styled 


Fig,  94. — Title  of  Jean  Cousin's  Livre  de  Poitiaitnie,  published  in  1593  by  Le  Clerc. 
(The  spot  on  the  title  is  in  the  original,  preserved  among  the  prints  of  the  Bibliothèque  Nationale.) 


"peintre  gêometrien."  It  is  beyond  doubt  that  this  master 
produced  figures  and  ornaments  for  many  works,  but  what  books 
were  they?  The  custom  was  then  to  repeat  the  engraved 
borders  of  titles,  the  compartments,  that  is  to  say,  the  passc- 
parto7it,  in  the  middle  of  which  the  text  was  printed.  Cousin 
must  have  designed  many  of  these  title-pages  on  wood,  for 
that  of    the    Livre  de  Portraiture    affords   a    curious  element  of 


ISO  The  Book. 

comparison  ;  but  he  was  not  by  any  means  the  inventor.  In 
1555  was  sold  at  Antwerp  a  book  printed  from  engraved 
plates  after  John  Vriedman,  by  Gerard  Juif,  which  is  simply 
a  collection  of  compartments  for  title-pages  for  the  use  of 
publishers. 

It  is  about  this  time  that  metal  plates  may  be  seen  in  con- 
junction with  wood  engraving  in  the  illustration  of  the  Book, 
and  the  best  artists  soon  attached  their  names  to  important 
publications  of  this  kind.  We  have  explained  in  a  former 
chapter  in  what  this  process  is  least  convenient  in  the  impres- 
sion of  a  book.  In  fact,  two  successive  printings,  that  of  the 
plates  and  that  of  the  te.xt,  were  additional  trouble  and  a 
frequent  cause  of  errors  ;  but  wood-cutting  was  in  some  measure 
abandoned  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  especially 
for  separate  plates,  and  engraved  plates  took  a  considerable 
importance  under  different  artistic  influences.  The  first  was  the 
facility  of  etching  a  metal  plate  compared  to  the  difficulty  of 
cutting  a  wood  block.  It  thus  naturally  happened  that  the 
artists  of  the  burin  wished  to  employ  their  art  in  illustration, 
and  taste  was  soon  drawn  to  the  new  process. 

In  France  the  first  volume  of  this  kind  was  printed  at 
Lyons,  in  1488,  by  Topie  de  Pymont  in  folio:  this  was  the 
Peregrinations  en  Terre  Sainte  of  Bernard  de  Breydenbach, 
with  figures  on  engraved  plates  copied  from  the  Mayence 
edition  of  i486.  Since,  then,  this  process  was  abandoned  until 
about  1550,  as  much  for  the  reasons  given  above  as  for  others, 
we  only  meet  with  a  stray  plate  in  a  book  now  and  again, 
which  remains  as  a  bait,  and  has  but  little  reference  to  the  text. 
Under  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  the  smallness  of  the  volumes  did 
not  always  admit  of  wood  engrav-ings,  and  the  artists  in  copper 
found  a  footing  among  illustrators  ;  they  made  attempts,  such  as 


Peter   Wok  riot.  151 

that  of  the  Histoire  de  Jason  of  René  Boivin  in  1 563,  which 
brought  about  under  Charles  IX.  a  charming  volume  of  en- 
graved plates  by  P.   Woériot. 

The  Einbleins  of  Georgette  de  Montenay  were  also  in  the 
nonsensical  style  of  those  by  Alciati,  but  they  had  an  advan- 
tage, as  the  author  assures  us  : — 

"  A'.ciat  fist  des  emblèmes  exquis, 
Lesquels,  voyant  de  plusieurs  requis. 
Désir  me  prist  de  commencer  les  miens, 
Lesquels  je  croy  estre  premiers  chrestiens." 

This  pretension  does  not  make  them  more  intelligible,  but 
the  engravings  of  Woériot,  unskilful  as  they  are,  import  an 
element  of  interest  which  makes  the  rest  passable.  It  was 
also  at  Lyons,  the  rival  and  often  the  master  of  Paris  in 
typography,   that  the  author  printed  his  work. 

By  the  privilege  dated  1566,  five  years  before  publication, 
we  see  that  it  empowered  Peter  Woériot,  engraver  to  the  Duke 
of  Lorraine,  to  portray,  engrave,  and  cut  in  copper  the  said 
figures  called  emblems  for  the  time  and  terms  of  five  years 
(October  i8th,  1566).  Peter  Woériot  sometimes  signed  his 
prints  with  the  small  Lorraine  cross  adopted  by  Geoffroy  Tory's 
workshop,  as  may  be    seen   in  our  engraving. 

Copperplate  engraving  had  by  this  time  established  itself, 
and  the  works  that  were  so  illustrated  increased.  The  archi- 
tect, Du  Cerceau,  published  his  admirable  collection  of  Les 
Ph(s  Beaux  Bastinicnts  de  France  in  folio  1576-79,  in  which 
he  had  lavished  numerous  plans  and  views  of  the  royal  and 
princely  castles.  Thevet  put  forth  his  Cosmographie  Universelle 
and  his  Hommes  Illnstrcs,  the  latter  adorned  with  skilfully  en- 
graved portraits.  In  Paris  the  publishers  Mamert  Pâtisson,  who 
married   the  widow   of  Robert    Estienne,   the   type   and   mark  of 


152 


THE    BOOK. 


whom  he  took,  Adrien  le  Roy,  and  Robert  Ballard,  his  confreres, 
published  the  celebrated  Ballet  Comique  de  la  Royne  Faict  aux 
Nopccs  de  lilonsieiir  le  Dnc  de  Joye7ise,  composed  by  Balthasar 
de  Beaujoyeux,  page  to  Henry  III.  ;  and  in  this  book,  in  which 
were  thrown  slight  etchings,  the  King  displayed  all  his  im- 
modesty and  lasciviousness.  The  Book  has  often  had  the  uncon- 
scious  mission  of    transmitting  to  posterity  the   unworthiness   of 


Fig.  95. — Engraving  ty  P.  Woériot  for  Georgette  de  Montenay's  Eiiiblciiies. 


its  author  or  of  its  heroes.  From  this  time  the  Book  has  left 
its  golden  age  to  enter  into  the  vanities  of  courtiers  and 
political  abstractions. 

Among  the  publications  opposed  to  the  Government  of  the 
time,  the  two  associates  Jacques  Tortorel  and  Jean  Perrissin, 
of  Lyons,  had  published  a  celebrated  collection  of  plates  on  the 
religious  wars  that  stained  the  reign  of  Charles  IX.  with  blood. 
At   first  engraved  on    metal,    these    plates    were  worn    out,    and 


The  Portrait  i.\  the  Book.  153 

were  gradually  replaced  by  others  engraved  on  wood,  on  which 
several  artists  worked,  among  them  Jacques  le  Challeux  and 
also  Jean  de  Gourmont,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  wood- 
cutters of  the  sixteenth  century.  This  was  a  work  composed 
of  single  leaves  in  folio  size,  which  had  an  extraordinary  sale 
among  the  religious  people  of  the  time. 

At   the   same   time,    illustration   on    wood  did    not   stand   still. 
The  portraits  of  authors   produced  by  the   pencil  of  Clouet  and 
his  school  were  commonly  put  at  the  head  of  their  works.     We 
cannot    say    whether    Clouet    himself   designed    the   portraits    of 
Tiraqueau  and  of  Taillemont  in  1553  ;  of  Du   Billon,  the  author 
of   the  Fort  Inexpugnable,  in   1555  ;   Papon  and  Ambroise   Pare 
in     1561  ;    Grevin,    Ramus,    and    others;     but    the    precision    of 
these  physiognomies  recalls   the   peculiar  manner  of   the   French 
artists  of   the    sixteenth    century.      The    Poems    of    Ronsard    in 
1586    contains    a    series  of   very  clever    portraits,    among   them 
that    of     Muret,     his     commentator,    one     of    the    most    perfect 
of   its    kind.     Christopher  de   Savigny,  author  of    the    Tableaux 
Accomplis  de    Toîis    les  Arts   LAberanx,   ijublished  by  Jean   and 
François  de  Gourmont  in   15S7,   is  represented  at  full  length  in 
the    frontispiece  of    his  work,   offering  the   book  to  the    Due  de 
Nevers,    to  whom    it    was  dedicated.     This    plate   in    folio,  pro- 
bably engraved  by  Jean  de  Gourmont,   is   the  best  finished  that 
can   be    seen.     The   work  of  Savigny,    forgotten    as    it    may  be 
now,   had  a  great  reputation   in  its  own   time  ;  and    Bacon  took 
from  it   the  idea  of    his  celebrated   cyclopaedia,  Advancement  of 
Learning:  London. 

Speaking  of  the  Due  de  Nevers,  it  will  not  be  without 
interest  to  our  readers  to  mention  here  a  manuscript  found 
in  the  Bibliothèque  Nationale,  which  enables  us  to  give  an 
account  of   the  work  then    necessary    for  the  publication    of  an 


154  The  Book. 

illustrated  book.  In  1577  the  Duke  arranged  for  the  impression 
of  an  apologetic  book,  of  which,  however,  no  trace  remains  ; 
and  his  intendatit  writes  a  long  letter  to  him  on  the  subject 
of  composition  and  bindings.  It  was  necessary  that  the  work 
should  be  produced  quickly,  bound  and  gilt,  for  presents.  The 
intendant  thinks  calf  would  be  the  most  expeditious  covering. 
"It  would  be  much  the  best  to  use  black  or  red  calf,  .  .  . 
well  gilt  above,  and  not  vellum,  which  is  a  thin  parchment 
that  quickly  shrinks."  The  statements  of  this  man  of  business 
show  that  five  proofs  of  each  sheet  were  taken  for  typo- 
graphical correction,  and  that  twelve  full  days  were  wanted 
for  the  binding.  The  most  interesting  part  of  this  memoir  is 
that  which  treats  of  the  engraving  on  wood  of  the  portrait. 
The  plate  was  designed  by  an  artist  who  had  afterwards  gone 
away.  If  it  was  not  satisfactory,  but  the  ornaments  would 
pass,  the  intendant  proposes  to  "fix  a  little  piece  of  wood 
in  the  block  for  another  portrait  to  be  drawn  upon."  Here 
we  see  correction  by  elimination.  "  The  pear- wood  on  which 
the  original  figure  was  engraved  was  to  be  taken  out  and  substi- 
tuted by  another  piece  of  wood  of  harder  material.  The 
portrait  of  the  Duchesse  de  Nevers  was  better,  yet  the 
pear-wood  had  given  way  under  the  work.  That  of 
Madame  is  more  passable.  Nevertheless,  there  is  still  some- 
thing to  say  to  one  eye.  The  wood  cannot  carry  the 
subtlety  of  the  line."  Here,  in  a  few  clear  and  explicit 
lines  by  a  man  of  the  time,  we  see  the  arrangement  of  a 
publication  of  the  sixteenth  century,  at  a  time  when  wood 
engraving  was  declining,  to  give  way  to  engraving  on  metal, 
which  was  soon  to  reign  supreme,  through  the  most  important 
publishing  house  of  the   century,   the    Plantins   of  Antwerp. 

Christoi^her     Plantin,     like     Jenson,     came     originally     from 


ClIRISTUPIIKR    P/.AXT/X.  I  55 

Tours.  After  havino-  learned  his  art  with  Mace  at  Caen,  he 
went  to  Paris,  from  which  the  wars  soon  drove  him.  He  left 
for  the  Low  Countries,  and  there  Philip  1 1 .  nominated  him  as 
chief    printer — architypographus.        Established    at     Antwerp    in 

£.«Mî>    "UtJUV  feck. 


*~lmcis    cfiim    vatrris ,  Piantine ,  tuasque    (a fares 
^jrEterrium    crtermim^  Jama     Coquetur  anus. 
'f~!)^cùuii'arv   opuj    InritûiZ    til     tunderis    czfïu. 
lilujiiri    tantum    tundit  ct   ifle  vtros  . 

Fig.  96. — Portrait  of  Christopher  Plantin,  printer  of  Antwerp.     Engraved  by  Wicri-i. 

1555,  he  surrounded  himself  as  had  done  the  Estiennes  and 
Alduses,  with  most  of  the  learned  and  literary  men  of  his 
time,  among  them  Justus  Lipsius,  to  whom  Balzac  attributed 
the  Latin  prefaces  signed  by  Plantin.  It  is  certain,  however, 
that    he   was  neither  an    Estienne  nor    an  Aldus.       His  artistic 


156  The  Book. 

probity  caused  him  to  submit  the  proofs  of  his  works  to 
strangers,  with  promise  of  recompense  for  faults  indicated  ;  the 
Estiennes  also  had  employed  the  same  system.  Plantin,  not 
to  be  behind  any  of  his  contemporaries  in  typographical 
perfection,  brought  from  France  the  celebrated  type-founder 
Guillaume  Lebé,  and  charged  him  to  supply  him  with  a  special 
fount.*       Under  the    orders  of  Philip    II.,   he  printed    the    cele- 


Fig.  97. — Plantin's  mark. 

brated  Polyglot  Bible,   in   eight   folio  volumes,  absolutely  perfect 
in   its  execution  ;  unfortunately  the  Spanish  Government,  having 

*  In  the  Bibliothèque  Nationale  is  a  copy  of  an  octavo  A/bum  de  Caractères, 
in  which  Lebé  has  written,  "This  gloss,  made  in  Paris  (1574)  by  me,  is  my 
fourteenth  letter,  and  the  text  is  made  on  the  pattern  of  the  preceding-  one  for 
size,  but  of  a  better  art  ;  and  from  this  was  printed  the  great  Bible  of  Antwerp  by 
Plantin,  to  whom  I  sold  a  fount"  (folio  6).  On  folio  20  he  wrote,  "I  do  not 
know  whence  came  this  small  Hebrew  that  I  received  from  Plantin  to  make  a 
smaller  one  for  him.  He  sent  me  this  half-sheet,  and  I  have  not  seen  at  Venice 
another  part." 


CHRISTOPHER   P/..L\T/.V.  1 57 

advanced  him  funds  in  the  course  of  publication,  prosecuted 
him  with  the  utmost  rigour  to  obtain  repayment.  This  very 
nearly  shut  up  his  printing  house,  but  he  took  courage  and 
overcame  his  difficulties,  and  set  his  affairs  in  order,  until  he 
became,  in  1589,  the  year  of  his  death,  the  principal  publisher 
of  Flanders.  His  mark  was  a  hand  holding  a  compass,  with 
the  motto  Lahore  et  constantia. 

Plantin,  who  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-four,  left  a 
prosperous  business  to  be  divided  between  his  three  daughters. 
There  was  first  the  house  at  Antwerp,  which  employed  seven- 
teen presses  even  at  the  time  when  he  was  in  trouble,  and 
there  were  further  branches  at  Paris  and  Leyden,  of  less 
consequence.  His  second  daughter  married  Jean  Moret,  called 
Moretiis,  and  to  him  descended  the  Antwerp  establishment  ; 
he  and  his  descendants  continued  the  printing  house  until 
recendy  ;  in  the  present  day  the  house  of  the  great  printer  and 
publisher  is  a  typographical  museum.  The  Plantin  printing 
office — Officina  Plantiniana — is  understood  to  apply  to  the 
founder  as  well  as  to  his  descendants.  The  fashion  of  engrav- 
ing in  metal  spread  itself  before  the  death  of  the  head  of  the 
house,  and  his  successors  continued  it.  The  principal  engravers 
with  the  burin  of  the  Low  Countries  were  employed  by  them  : 
the  Wierix,  the  Galle,  the  Pass,  the  Mallery,  the  Van  Sichem  ; 
it  was  a  real  school  of  illustration,  that  created  by  degrees 
a  precious  and  sustained  style,  not  without  influence  on  the 
artists  of  that  epoch.  It  was  from  this  particular  manner  that 
came  Thomas  de  Leu  and  Leonard  Gaultier  in  France  ;  and 
it  is  from  Antwerp  that  came  those  small  religious  engraved 
figures  that  have  lasted  to  our  time  in  their  incomprehensible 
mysticism. 

The    title-pages    of   the    Plantin    printing    office    inaugurated 


158  The  Book. 

the  passe-partout  engraved  by  the  burin,  overloaded  and  com- 
plicated, of  which  the  seventeenth  century  took  advantage. 
To  tell  the  truth,  these  elaborate  displays,  blackened  by  ink, 
do  not  well  accord  with  the  titles  ;  and  there  is  a  long 
distance  between  this  decadence  and  the  books  ornamented 
with  wood  blocks  by  the  Italians  and  French  of  the  com- 
mencement of  the  century.  E.xception  must  be  made  in  favour 
of  Rubens,  who  made  the  designs  for  many  of  these  titles. 
The  heavy  and  squat  architecture  of  the  time  was  least  of  all 
appropriate  to  these  decorations,  which  wanted  grace.  It 
passed  from  Plantin  into  France  through  the  engravers  ;  it 
went  to  Rome  with  Martin  de  Vos  and  Jean  Sadeler  ;  it 
made  its  way  everywhere  ;  and  from  that  day  to  this  it  has 
never  ceased.  At  the  time  of  which  we  write  it  had  taken 
its  flight  in  France,  and  spread  itself  in  Europe  with  extra- 
ordinary success.  Engraving  in  relief,  holding  its  own  until 
then,  gave  way  little  by  little  before  this  invasion.  When 
Henry  I\^  mounted  the  throne  wood  engraving  had  well-nigh 
finished  its  upward  movement  ;  it  still  remained  in  the  canards, 
or  popular  pieces  sold  at  low  prices,  but  it  is  easy  to  see 
what  these  hasty   cuts   are   worth. 

We  have  now  seen,  in  broad  outlines,  the  history  of  the 
Book  and  its  decoration  in  the  sixteenth  century  in  France  : 
at  first  there  were  the  French  epics  in  Italy,  the  Books  of 
Hours,  the  Romances  of  Chivalry  ;  then  about  1550,  with  the 
reign  of  Henry  II.,  the  religious  pamphlets  commenced,  book- 
selling spread  itself  ;  the  strife  between  illustrations  on  metal 
plates  and  those  in  relief  assumed  shape,  it  continued  under 
Henry  III.,  and  terminated  abruptly  by  the  victory  of  the  first 
at  the  extreme  end  of  the  century.  With  political  passions, 
printing  has   become   a  weapon  of  warfare,   which  it  will    never 


Christopher  Pj.axtjx. 


159 


cease    to     be.       They     knew    in     the    sixteenth     century     what 
perfidious   accusations    or  excessive    praises    were    worth.       The 


Fig.  98, — Frontispiece  of  a  book  from  Plantin's  printing  office. 
Metal  engraving. 

Book   followed,   besides,    the  fate  of   its   author.       If   the    writer 

was  burned,   so  was    his    book,    as  was   the    case    with    Etienne' 

Dolet,  born    1509    at    Orleans,    who    having    learnt    typography 


i6o 


The  Book. 


at  Gryphius's  office,  Lyons,  and  established  a  printing  office 
at  Lyons,  1537,  was  burnt  in  Paris  for  his  heterodox  publi- 
cations 1546.  Witness  also  the  Christianisiiii  Restitutio  of 
the    Catholic    Servetus,    printed    at    Vienne,    in    Dauphiné,    and 


Fig.  99. — Mark  of  Etienne  Dolet,  printer  at  Ljons,  1542. 

consigned  to  the  flames  with  its  author  at  Geneva  in  1553.  A 
single  copy  was  saved  from  the  fire,  and  is  now  preserved  in 
the  Bibliothèque  Nationale  ;  it  is  the  identical  copy  annotated 
by  Colladon,  the  accuser  of  the  unhappy  Servetus,  and  still 
bears   traces  of  fire  on   its   leaves. 


CHAPTER     IV. 


1600    TO    1700. 

Tendencies  of  the  regency  of  Marie  de  Medici — Thomas  de  Leu  and  Leonard 
Gaultier — J.  Picart  and  Claude  Mellan — Lyons  and  J.  de  Fornazeris — The 
Book  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  Germany,  Italy,  England, 
and  Holland — Crispin  Pass  in  France — The  Elzevirs  and  Enschedé  and  their 
work  in  Holland — Sebastian  Cramoisy  and  the  Imprimerie  Royale — Illustration 
under  Callot,  Delia  Bella,  and  Abraham  Bosse — The  publishers  and  the  Hotel 
de  Rambouillet — The  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  Antoine  Vitré  syndic  at  his  acces- 
sion— His  works  and  mortifications  ;  the  Polyglot  Bible  of  Le  Jay — Art  and 
illustrators  of  the  grand  century — Sébastien  Leclerc,  Lepautre,  and  Chauveau 
— Leclerc  preparing  the  illustration  and  decoration  of  the  Book  for  the 
eighteenth    century. 


EVER  did  the  art  of  printing  pass 
through  a  more  critical  period  than  that 
at  which  we  have  now  arrived,  when  the 
science  of  the  old  printers  assumed  a 
commercial  character,  in  which  taste  lost 
itself  under  the  influence  of  religious 
architecture.  Changed  into  cathedral 
porticos,  the  Book  is  crowded  with  un- 
sightly columns,  mitred  and  crossed 
saints.  Figures  on  copper  plates  replaced  the  foliage  and  the 
arabesques  of  the  older  booksellers.  Through  the  Plantins  and 
their  imitators,  the  architectural  passion  was  far  spread.  It 
inundated  France,  ran  through  Germany  and  Italy,  and  reigned 

1 1 


Fig.  100. — Letter  engraved  by 
A.  Bosse. 


102  The  Book: 

pre-eminent     in     Holland.       Literary    taste    also    underwent     a 
change  ;  manners  were  no  longer  those  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
bold,  free,  and  gay  ;  from  the  religious  wars  a  certain  hypocrisy 
arose  ;  bombast  replaced  the  natural  ;    the  gods  were  preparing, 
as  a  contemporary  said,  to  receive  Louis  XIV.  and  his  genius. 
It    is    not    that    artists  were  wanting  at    the  opening  of  the 
seventeenth    century  who    could,   in    giving    free    scope    to    their 
talent,    show  themselves  worthy  successors    of  those    who    went 
before  them.     Unhappily  the  booksellers  had    no  longer  a  loose 
bridle  on  their  neck  ;  they  rather  had  the  rope  round  it,  for  they 
were  hung  or  burned  at  the  least  infraction  of  political  or  religious 
propriety.     Yet  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.  was  relatively  an  easier 
period    for    the    workers    at    the    Book,   in  which  they  were    less 
confined  to  the  strict  terms  of  excessive  regulations  ;    but    after 
this  prince  severity  increased,  and  during  the  year   1626  a    new 
law    was    promulgated    punishing    with    death    the    printers    or 
distributers  of  prohibited  books.     Doubtless  the  books  that  were 
thus  secretly  sold,  and    prohibited  in  defence  of  good    manners, 
were  neither  typographical  nor  artistic  cJicfs-d œuvre.     The  author 
displays    the    indecencies    by    which    he    hoped    to    make    profit 
and    fame,    regardless    of  type   or    illustration.      But    during   the 
regency  of    Marie  de  Medici,    it  was  not  only  the  authors  of  a 
bad  standard  that  were  in    danger  of  being    hung  ;    the    printer 
or  seller  of  the  pamphlet  or  book  of  a  reputed  heterodox  author 
was    also   hung,   and    it    became    difficult    to    steer    safely    among 
these  prohibitions.     The  consequence  was,  that  enormous  numbers 
of  works  were    made    with    frontispieces    decorated    with    colon- 
nades and  mitred   saints,  and  displaying  high-sounding    titles    of 
sound    orthodoxy.      The    somewhat    gross    mysticism,    from    the 
office     of    Plantin,     formed     the     most     solid     stock     of    every 
respectable  dealer. 


Thomas  de  Lev. 


1 6^ 


Under    Henry    IV.  as  well    as    under    the    minority  of  Louis 
XIII.,    two     French    illustrators    received    from    the    school     of 


^-A. PaJXIS,  Chez^  Pitirc  Chciuillicr  rue  S,'Iat:q"cs  a  I'miuje  SlPierr;^^ 


Fig.  lOI.  -Title  of  the  Mctanéalogic,  engraved  by  Leonard  Gaultier. 

Antwerp     their    inspiration    for     the    ornament    of    the     Book. 
Thomas    de    Leu,  probably  from    Flanders,   was    allied  with    the 


104  The  Book. 

old  Parisian  painter  and  engraver  of  celebrated  portraits,  Antoine 
Caron,    in    furnishing    the    engraved    plates    for    the    Images    dc 
Plate    Peinture    des    Deux   Philostrates,   Sophistes    Grées,    Paris, 
Claude    Cramoisy,    1609,   folio;    and    Leonard    Gaultier,  his    con- 
temporary   worker     in     company    with    Jaspar     Isaac    and    other 
artists    in     the    Book.      Leonard    Gaultier    contributed    most    to 
spread    in   France   the   Plantinian    style,   and    his    somewhat    cold 
but  characteristic  talent  suited  this  art  more  than  that  of  any  one 
else  then  could.      He  was  also  an  engraver  of  portraits,  now  rare 
and  valuable,  in  the  style  of  Wierix  or  of  Thomas  de  Leu  ;  but, 
at  the  demand  of  publishers  and  booksellers,  he  composed  other 
plates,    at    first  historical    figures    representing    the    royal    family 
and  the  nobles  for  the  publisher  Leclerc,  in  a  simple  and  natural 
manner  ;    he    also    designed    pious    figures,    recording    a    miracle 
or    representing    the  ceremonies    of  a  jubilee    and   other   devo- 
tional things.     But  he  made  his  great  success  in  the  composition 
of    frontispieces    to    theological    and    pious    works,    printed    by 
nearly   all    the   booksellers.       Leonard    Gaultier  had  a    knack   of 
his    own    for    pilasters    and    Grecian    columns,     under  which    he 
boldly  placed  entire  councils  of  cardinals  and   bishops,  as  in  the 
heading    of   the    BibliotJieea     J^eterum  Patruni,    into    which    he 
crowded   nearly   forty   figures.      He  blended  also  with  a    certain 
grace    the  sacred  and    the    profane,    placing  among  ideal    saints 
the  wanton  fine  ladies   of  the   time,    with   their  large  collarettes 
and  jewels   falling   down   on   their   naked  breasts.      The  work   of 
André    Valladier,    chaplain    to    the    King,    entitled  Alctandalogie 
Sacrée,    published    by    Peter    Chevalier    in     1609,    was    adorned 
with    a   title   of  this    particular  kind,    in   which    Gaultier    had    no 
rival,   and   which    preserves   the  precision  of  Flemish   masters  in 
the  detail   of  ornaments  of  the   toilet. 

He  was  one  of  the  first  who  worked  for  Sebastien  Cramoisy, 


Leoxard  Gaultier.  165 

printer  and  publisher,  who  had  established  his  shop  in  the  Rue 
St.  Jacques  at  the  sign  of  the  Stork.  We  shall  have  occasion 
to  speak  of  him  later  in  connection  with  the  Royal  Printing 
House,  of  which  he  was  the  first  director  ;  he  is  mentioned 
now  because  in  161 1  Leonard  Gaultier  engraved  for  him  the 
frontispiece  of  L'Aigle  Finançais,  a  collection  of  sermons  by 
Thomas  Girault.  The  publisher  made  a  kind  of  passe-partout 
of  it,  for  he  used  the  same  plate  in  16 18  for  the  Sermons  of 
Raymond  de  Hézèque. 

Besides  the  publications  of  Sebastien  Cramoisy  and  Cheval- 
lier, Leonard  Gaultier  illustrated  also  those  of  Nicholas  Buon 
and  many  other  publishers  of  the  time  in  Paris  and  Lyons. 
With  such  a  profusion  of  works  emanating  from  a  single  artist 
without  reckoning  those  which  were  produced  in  great  quantity 
by  men  of  less  note,  wood  engraving  was  dead.  At  most  they 
ventured  to  put  a  wood  block  of  a  printer's  mark  on  a  title  ; 
more  ordinarily  this  mark  was  not  alone  sufficient,  and  showed 
the  disdain  in  which  taste  then  held  wood-cutting.  Such  is 
fashion,  heedless  of  the  most  elementary  rules  of  art.  To  put 
type  within  an  engraved  title,  or  to  ornament  a  printed  text 
with  engravings,  is  a  heresy  of  principle  that  was  established 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  by  dint  of  its  cleverness  and  talent. 
But  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth,  in  spite  of  Leonard 
Gaultier  or  Thomas  de  Leu,  these  overloaded  titles,  over- 
powering the  very  front  of  the  Book,  offend  the  eye  by  their 
excessive  blackness,  and  incontestably  make  us  regret  the 
admirable  frontispiece  on  wood  of  the  preceding  century. 

This  is,  properly  speaking,  all  the  ornament  at  the  acces- 
sion and  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII.  Leonard  Gaultier 
composed  also  some  small  vignettes  for  an  edition  of  Homer, 
but    they    are    mediocre     and    but    little    to    the     point.      The 


1 66  The  Book. 

frontispiece  was  the  resource  of  the  unoccupied  engraver,  and 
many  others  followed  the  same  path.  Jean  Picart  made  a 
frontispiece  with  architecture  and  figures  for  the  Histoire  de 
la  Jlfaison  de  Chàtillon-sur-Marnc  for  Sebastien  Cramoisy. 
A  cold  and  hard  artist  he  was,  the  rival  of  Gaultier,  and  one 
of  the  most  employed  of  the  vignette  engravers  of  Paris. 
There  was  also  Jaspar  Isaac,  a  mediocre  craftsman,  but  a 
designer  of  clever  titles,  among  which  is  that  of  the  continua- 
tion of  the  Annales  of  Baronius  for  the  publisher  Denis  de 
la  Noue.  Then  Claude  Mellan,  whose  great  and  clever  talent 
did  not  disdain  second-rate  works,  in  which  he  gave  free  play 
to  his  burin.  It  must  be  said,  however,  that  his  bold  touch 
did  not  accommodate  itself  well  to  reduced  spaces,  and  that 
he  was  not  working  in  the  field  which  suited  his  inventive 
powers.  We  mention  his  portrait  of  Louis  XIV.  at  the  head 
of  the  Code  Louis  XIV.  ;  the  title  of  the  Per/eclion  du 
Chrestien,  in  which  is  included  a  portrait  of  Cardinal  Richelieu, 
A.  Vitré,  1647,  folio  ;  that  of  the  Instruction  dtt,  Dauphin 
for  Cramoisy,  1640  ;  that  of  the  Works  of  St.  Bernard  for 
the  Royal  Printing  House  ;  and,  lastly,  perhaps  the  best  of 
all,  the  Poesies  of  Pope  Urban  VIII.,  of  which  we  here  give 
a  copy. 

Lyons  did  not  remain  long  behind  in  the  movement,  but 
how  changed  from  its  great  reputation  of  the  sixteenth 
century  !  J.  de  Fornazeris  engraved  the  frontispieces  to  Justus 
Lipsius,  published  by  Horace  Cardon  in  16 13.  Peter  Favre 
and  Audran  imitated  them.  C.  Audran  designed  for  Claude 
Landry  the  Theologia  Nattiralis  of  Theophilus  Reynaud,  and 
the  bookseller  Picquet  ordered  from  him  the  title  for  the 
Annales  Minorum  in  1628.  Everywhere  taste  was  modelled 
on     the    works    of    the    capital,     to     name     only    the     principal 


ExGRAVEi)  Titles  ix  Frexcii  Books.  167 

centres,  Rouen,  Rheims,  Sens,  down  to  Venes,  a  small  town 
of  the  Department  of  Tarn,  where  Guillaume  de  Nautonnier 
published    in   1603  his  curious   book    Ml' come' trie,    whose  frontis- 


Fig.  102. — Title  engraved  by  Claude  Mellan  for  Urban  VIII.  s  Poesies,  printed  at  the 
Roya'  Printing  House,  in  1642. 

piece     was     bordered    by    views    of    cities,    with    an    equestrian 
portrait  of  King  Henry. 

And  if  we  pass  to  Germany,  we  find  at  Mayence 
mediocre  engravings  for  titles  according  to  the  pattern  then 
prevalent  everywhere.     The   title  of  the  Eroit  Civil  of  Aymar 


1 68  The  Book. 

Vailius,  that  of  the  works  of  St.  Bonaventura  in  1609  for  the 
bookseller  Antoine  Hiérat,  and  that  of  the  Viridarhmi  Virtutûm, 
rather  cleverly  treated  by  the  burin  in  i6io.  What  a  period 
had  passed  since  Gutenberg,  Fust,  and  Schoeffer  !  There  was 
still  one  Ivo  Schoeffer  at  Mayence,  but  only  the  name  lived  ; 
no  trace  remained  of  the  old  printers  of  the  other  century. 
It  was  the  same  at  Bamberg,  Cologne,  Nuremberg,  and  Basle, 
in  all  the  cities  that  were  an  honour  to  typography  in  former 
times.  Cologne  was  neither  better  nor  worse  favoured  than 
others.  The  booksellers  Boetzer,  Kinck,  and  De  Binghy 
had  passable  engravings  for  their  titles  ;  and  the  Commentaries 
of  Salmeron  may  be  mentioned,  with  portraits  alter  the 
original  Germans  of  the  fifteenth  century.  At  Nuremberg 
we  may  cite  a  curious  specimen  treating  of  natural  history  by 
Basil  Besler,  in  which  the  artist  gives  the  interior  of  a 
zoological  cabinet  of  the  time  ;  but  what  has  become  of 
the  blocks  and  the  typography  in  the  city  of  Koberger  t 
Basle  held  its  own  later  in  relief  engraving.  In  the  mean- 
time there  was  a  mediocre  set  of  the  Dance  of  Death  on 
copper,  published  by  Miegen,    162 1. 

At  Jena  and  Frankfort-on-the-Main  were  prosperous  print- 
ing houses,  but  engravings  and  ornamentation  were  neglected. 
Frankfort,  however,  employed  the  frontispiece  in  the  Traité  du 
Commerce  of  Sigismond  Scaccia,  published  by  Zuner  in  1648; 
it  was  divided  into  compartments,  in  which  the  Bourse,  the 
E.xchange,  and  the  quay  of  the  city  were  represented. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  mention  the  Italian  cities  which 
followed  the  movement.  Venice  from  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century  had  used  engraved  frontispieces,  among  which  was  that 
of  Domenic  Zenoi  for  the  Portraits  des  Hommes  Iliicstres  of 
Nicholas  Valegio.     In  the   same    city  James   Piccini  worked  for 


Cj^/sp/x  Pass.  169 

Sgava  in  1648,  but  he  was  equally  at  the  service  of  Roman 
publishers,  for  whom  he  designed  a  number  of  titles.  By 
the  side  of  him  Frederic  Greuter  adorned  the  publications  of 
Alexander  Zanetti,  not  without  talent,  but  without  individuality. 
Bologna,  Brescia,  Florence,  and  Naples,  had  no  original  senti- 
ment ;  they  followed  indifferently  the  manner  of  the  day. 

In  Holland,  artists  were  somewhat  numerous.  The  family  of 
the  Passes  designed  vignettes  for  books,  and  engraved  frontis- 
pieces, admirably  studied  and  composed.  The  clear  and  truly 
individual  style  of  their  works  places  their  illustrations  in  the  first 
rank  among  those  of  their  time.  They  had,  at  the  same  time, 
the  genius  that  created  and  the  intelligent  burin  that  faithfully 
repre.sented  an  idea.  They  imagined  with  skill  the  scenes  that 
they  depicted  without  borrowing  much  from  their  predecessors. 
From  1599,  the  date  of  the  publication  of  the  Hortus  Deliciarum, 
one  of  their  best  works,  up  to  about  1623,  they  were  in  Holland, 
at  Arnheim  and  at  Amsterdam.  In  1623  we  find  one  of  them, 
the  most  celebrated,  Crispin  the  younger,  designing  figures  for 
the  Manege  Royal  of  Pluvinel,  published  by  Angelier  in  Paris, 
and  for  another  edition,  with  folding  plates,  in  1624  for  Guillaume 
Lenoir,  at  the  sign  of  the  White  Rose  Crowned.  This  mag- 
nificent work,  in  which  the  King,  Louis  XIII.,  is  represented 
receiving  lessons  from  the  riding  master  Pluvinel,  appeared  in 
a  third  and  more  complete  reimpression  in  1625  with  another 
publisher,  Michel  Nivelle.  Here  we  see  the  Dutch  appreciated 
in  France,  in  Paris,  at  that  time  the  city  the  most  ready  to 
understand  and  pay  for  the  works  of  eminent  artists.  In  1624 
Gombauld  published  an  Endymion —  Boileau  later  associated 
Gombauld  with  other  poets  to  dub  him  a  maker  of  pitiable  sonnets 
— Nicholas  Buon,  the  bookseller  named  above,  undertook  the 
publication,  and  employed  Pass,   Leonard  Gaultier,  and  J.  Picart 


I/O  The  Book. 

to  furnish  plates  in  octavo  size.  Heavy  and  black  as  were  these 
vignettes,  they  none  the  less  make  a  good  appearance  in  the 
edition  of  the  forgotten  poet  ;  and  it  is  due  to  truth  to  recognise 
how  much  Pass  was  above  his  collaborators.  The  followina: 
year,  1625,  he  engraved  the  Dionysiaques  of  Nonus,  for  Robert 
Fouet,  and  the  Roman  des  Romans  of  Du  Verdier,  comprising 
more  than  ten  engravings,  in  a  very  free  and  bold  manner. 
The  Berger  Extravagant  and  the  Académie  de  I'Espde  came 
in   1628,  among  numerous  others. 

In  point  of  fact,  Crispin  Pass  did  not  devote  himself  entirely 
to  Parisian  publishers  ;  he  always  kept  up  his  interests  in 
Flanders  so  as  to  return  there  from  time  to  time  ;  but  he  did 
not  find  in  his  own  country  the  ready  and  assured  sales  of 
Paris.  Still  the  city  of  Leyden  had  then  one  of  the  most 
renowned  workshops  of  typography;  the  Elzevirs  had  commenced 
to  make  a  good  place  for  themselves  among  the  printers 
of  Europe  by  the  extreme  correctness  of  their  editions,  the 
distinctness  of  their  work,  and  their  marvellous  art  in  the  taste 
and  arrangement  of  the  Book.  In  reality,  the  sizes  and  characters 
of  their  books  were  too  small,  but  if  the  smallness  of  the  page 
did  not  allow  room  for  vignette  or  ornament,  they  bore  a  certain 
practical  elegance  that  was  not  without  charm.  The  origin  of 
the  printing  house  was  due  .to  Louis  Elzevir,  who  published 
in  1592  an  edition  of  Eiitropiiis  ■sX  Leyden.  He  left  sons,  who 
went  into  j^artnership,  and  founded,  as  we  know,  a  house 
which  was  unrivalled. 

Bonaventure  Elzevir,  grandson  of  Louis,  was  the  most 
illustrious  of  this  family,  so  remarkably  devoted  to  its  art.  He 
took  Abraham  as  partner,  and  together  they  published  those 
little  Latin  classics  in  duodecimo  of  which  the  value  is  now  so 
great.     Among  others,  Pliny  issued  from  their  presses  in  the  year 


The  Elzevirs. 


171 


1635,  in  three  volumes,  Virgil  in  1636,  and  Cicero  in  1642. 
To-day  amateurs,  above  all  those  afflicted  with  bibliomania,  hunt 
for  unbound  Elzevirs  when  they  have  full  margins.  From 
about  1633  to  1639  these  volumes  were  composed  of  paper  of 
rather  small  size,  making  a  page  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  to  a 
hundred  and    thirty-three    millimetres;    from     1639^  onwards  the 


Fig.  103. — Title  of  Pluvinel's  Manege  Royal,  engraved  by  Crispin  Pass  in  1624. 


paper  was  larger,  and  the  page  in  i2mo  measured]  from  about 
a  hundred  and  thirty-five  to  a  hundred  and  thirty-seven.  One 
must  be  a  book-lover  to  understand  the  interest  attaching  to 
these  figures,  and  employ  his  entire  activity  in  the  discovery 
of  these  undiscoverable  books,  which  are  zealously  kept  under 
lock  and  key  as  soon  as  they  are  found. 

One  of  the  most  esteemed  of  their  works  is  the  De  Iinitatione 


172 


The  Book. 


of  Thomas  à  Kempis,  printed  by  Jean  and  Daniel  Elzevir  about 
1653,  and  known  as  the  edition  without  date.  But  as  the 
association  of  Jean  and  Daniel  is  known  to  have  lasted  only 
from  1652  to  1654,  the  date  1653  appears  to  be  most  plausible. 
We  reproduce  the  entire  title  of  this  typographical  bijou,  which 
merited  a  cleverer  engraver. 


Fig.  104. — Title  of  the /;;;//(i//o/i  of  the  Elzevirs. 


The  rarest  of  all  the  numerous  Elzevirs,  possibly  by  reason 
of  the  popularity  of  its  subject,  is  the  Pastissier  Francois,  Louis 
and  Daniel  Elzevir,  Amsterdam,  1655,  of  which  M.  Morgand 
had  an  uncut  copy,  measuring  a  hundred  and  forty-three  milli- 
metres,  in    1878.     The  Benzon  copy  sold  in   1875  for  ^140,  and 


The  Elzemrs. 


1/3 


another   copy    which     lately    turned    up    at    M.    Techener's  Sale 
brought  ^96. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  Elzevirs  frequently  avoided 
dating  or  even  signing  their  books,  for  reasons  easily  understood. 
Publishing  numerous  works,  they  were  afraid  of  compromising 
themselves  in  the  eyes  of  the  powerful,  and  they  let  them  go 
forth  without  any  trade  mark.  These  artists  in  typography  were, 
besides,  the  most  prudent  and  subtle  of  men.  Working  at  a 
time  when  bookselling  had  become  an  acknowledged  commerce, 
and  a  trade  requiring  all  the  skill  and  resources  of  others, 
they  wisely  availed  themselves  of  these  resources,  gathering  for 


Fig    105. — Mark  of  Bonaventiire  and  Abraham  Elzevir, 
printers  at  Leyden,  1620. 

themselves  honour  and  profit  without  having  done  anything 
more  than  seizing  their  opportunity.  Using,  as  they  did,  the 
characters  of  Claude  Garamond,  of  Jacques  Sanlecques,  and 
the  paper  of  Angoulême,  M.  Didot  thence  claims  them  as 
French    publishers. 

After  the  Elzevirs  another  celebrated  printer's  family  made 
its  mark  in  Holland,  who  afterwards  acquired  the  Elzevir  fount, 
viz.,  the  Enschedé  family,  who  carried  on  a  flourishing  printing 
office  and  type  foundry.  Isaak,  born  in  1681,  printed,  in  con- 
junction with  his  son  John,  a  folio  Bible.  John  began  already 
as  a    boy  of    nine  years,    under   the    supervision    of    his    father 


174  The  Book. 

to  cut  types  in  wood,  and  published  in  1777  several  classical 
works  and  a  pattern  book  of  types,  Proef  van  Lettern,  which 
even  now  is  considered  a  very  important  contribution  to  the 
history  of  printing. 

In  France  the  Elzevirs  had  no  rivals  ;  but  a  fashion  was 
introduced  towards  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  for  the 
association  of  several  publishers  in  the  production  of  important 
and  costly  books.  There  were,  among  others,  the  company  of 
the  Grand  N'avire  in  1610,  of  the  Source  in  1622,  and  of  the 
Soleil  in  1629.  In  1631  several  publishers  united  and  founded 
a  second  company  of  the  Grand  Navire.  These  were  the  two 
Cramoisys,  Sebastien  and  Gabriel,  Denis  Béchet,  Jean  Branchu, 
Denis  Moreau,  Claude  Sonnius,  and  Denis  Thierry.  The 
associates  took  a  ship  as  their  mark,  but  without  putting  their 
names  on  the  masts,  as  the  original  company  of  the  Grand 
Navire  had  done.  They  published,  at  mutual  expense  and 
divided  profits,  great  works,  of  which  each  one  of  them  had 
the  right  of  sale,  but  of  course  reserving  to  themselves  the 
right  to  publish  such  others  as  they  pleased.  Sebastien 
Cramoisy  passes  as  the  chief,  the  moral  director  of  another 
company,  formed  to  publish  the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  with 
the  royal  types,  a  company  affiliated  to  the  Grand  Navire  and 
signed  in  163S  by  Denis  ^Nloreau,  Gille  Morel,  Etienne  Richer, 
Claude  Sonnius,  and  Gabriel  Cramoisv.  But  as  rerards  their 
personal  works,  if  they  had  neither  the  perfection  nor  the 
aspect  of  those  of  Froben,  Aldus,  the  Estiennes,  or  even  of 
Plantin,  they  at  least  surpassed  the  French  books  of  the  time. 
Formerly  syndic  of  the  Corporation  in  1602,  twenty-nine  years 
before  the  constitution  of  the  Grand  N'avire,  Cramoisy  was 
also  sheriff  of  Paris,  and  carried  on  his  trade  in  a  shop  in 
the    Rue  St.   Jacques  which    had    been    that    of  Father    Nivelle, 


Cramoisy.  175 

the    doyen     of  booksellers,    who    died    in     1603    at    the    age    of 
eighty  years. 

The  position  of  Cramoisy  made  it  natural  that  Cardinal 
Richelieu  should  fix  his  eyes  on  him  for  the  direction  of  the 
Royal  Printing  House.  This  establishment,  founded  by  the 
King  in  1640,  was  installed  within  the  Louvre,  in  a  long 
series  of  consecutive  rooms  which  formed  a  workshop  without 
rival  in  the  world.  Sublet  des  Noyers  was  named  superinten- 
dent, Trichet  du  Fresne  corrector  ;  and  under  this  triple 
direction  the  presses  set  to  work.  The  first  book  was  the 
Imitation  de  Jésus-Christ,  dated  1640,  folio,  a  fine  book 
enough,  but  not  to  be  compared  to  the  Elzevir  editions.  The 
types  used  in  this  book  are  attributed  to  Claude  Garamond, 
founder  of  the  sixteenth  century,  to  whom  are  due  the  Greek 
types  of  Francis  I.  With  the  Royal  Printing  House,  as  often 
happens  with  State  enterprises,  the  cost  was  great,  and  the 
return  nothing.  Only  a  few  years  after  its  foundation  it  had 
swallowed  up  nearly  400,000  livres,  a  very  heavy  sum  for  a 
badly  balanced  treasury  ;  it  had  produced  sixty  or  seventy 
volumes  of  moderate  value  ;  and  after  Cramoisy  the  manage- 
ment was  so  little  in  earnest  that  it  turned  the  workshops 
into  a  stable,  called  "the  little  stable  of  the  King,"  at  the 
commencement  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

To  return  to  the  artists  of  the  Book  under  Louis  XIII. 
and  Cardinal  Richelieu,  we  must  go  back  a  little,  before  the 
foundation  of  the  Royal  Printing  House,  and  we  shall  take  up  the 
French  school  of  illustration  at  a  time  when  Jacques  Callot  was 
giving  it  a  vigorous  lift  and  trying  to  do  away  with  its  affected 
and  hard  style.  It  must  be  acknowledged  that  Callot  was 
not  a  vignettist,  a  special  designer  ;  his  art  aimed  higher, 
and  in    most    cases  succeeded    better  ;    yet    he    did    not    disdain 


1/6 


The  Book. 


frontispieces,  and  made  some  for  the  Coustumier  de  Lorraine, 
the  Harpalice  of  Bracciolini,  and  for  a  crowd  of  others  of  which 
the  enumeration  would  be  tedious.  Certain  of  his  works  passed 
into  Italy,  where  they  helped  to  raise  the  debased  level  of  the 
Book.  He  then  adorned  several  works  with  etchings,  among 
them  the  Lunncre  du  Cloistre,  published  by  François  Langlois 
1646.  This  was  again  one  of  the  symbolic  and  sententious 
works  with  which  the  public  taste  is  never  satiated,  and  a  kind 


Fig.  106. — Plate  taken  from  the  Liiiiiuic  du  Cloistic.     Copper-plate  by  Callot. 


of  guide    for    the    priest.     At   the    bottom    of  the  little  etching 
here  given,  representing  birds  falling  from  a  tree,  we  read, — 

"  Ses  petits  hors  du  nid  Ie_courbeau  jette  en  bas, 
Lorsque  par  leur  blancheur  ils  lui  sont  dissemblables. 
Le  bon  prélat  de  mesme  au   cloistre  n'admet  pas 
Ceux  qui  n'ont  rien  d'esgal  à  ses  mœurs  vénérables." 

Callot  also  made  another  set  of  emblems  on  the  life  of 
the  Virgin  Mary,  and  even  published  in  1620  a  series  of 
prints  in  quarto  for  the  tragedy  of  Soliman  of  Bonarelli,  for 
Cecconnelli.  France  imposed  herself  on  fallen  Italy,  where  she 
dispersed   her  works,  and    if    an    engraver    arose    there,  he    did 


Callot.  177 

not  disdain  to  be  consecrated  in  France.  Witness  Delia  Bella, 
who  went  from  Italy  to  France,  where  he  was  taken  under  the 
protection  of  Cardinal  Richelieu.  This  was  about  the  time  of  the 
establishment  of  the  Royal  Printing  House,  and  it  was  expected 
that  employment  would  be  found  for  him  sooner  or  later. 

Callot  was  the  model  chosen  by  the  young  Italian  artist, 
and  this  choice  might  have  been  less  happy.  Delia  Bella  took 
from  his  master  the  philosophic  vein,  the  drollery  of  design, 
which  he  exercised  from  the  outset  in  humorous  frontispieces, 
among  others  that  of  Scarron's  works,  where  nine  fish-women, 
taking  the  place  of  the  Muses,  dance  around  the  poet.  But 
he  passed  from  gay  and  pleasant  to  severe,  and  made  large 
designs  of  architectural  titles.  In  1649  he  designed  the  plates 
for  the  large  and  ill-arranged  volume  of  Valdor  on  Louis  XIII., 
published  by  Antoine  Estienne  at  the  Royal  Printing  House. 
His  success  was  not  in  that  direction  ;  Delia  Bella  was  a 
painter  of  groups,  of  ornaments,  of  subjects  somewhat  heavy 
and  laboured,  but  which,  after  numerous  transformations, 
opened  a  new  road  to  the  vignettists  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

With  Abraham  Bosse  the  decoration  of  the  Book  took  a 
wider  range.  Numerous  and  charmingly  ornamented  letters, 
heads  of  pages,  and  tailpieces  appear.  There  are  few  artists 
that  have  done  so  much  for  graceful  illustration  and  harmony 
between  the  vignette  and  the  printed  page.  His  prodigious 
fecundity  made  him  attempt  every  style  ;  and  after  the  gaieties 
of  the  prints  in  which  he  laughed  with  his  contemporaries, 
he  adopted  a  graver  mood  and  designed  more  serious  sub- 
jects on  copper.  However,  the  book  entitled  La  Manih'e 
Universelle,  by  Desargues,  with  numerous  geometrical  figures 
and     a    pleasing     frontispiece,    bearing    the    dedication    to     the 

12 


178 


The  Book. 


Seigneur  de  Noyers,  superintendent  of  the  Royal  Printing 
House,  was  a  critical  work,  in  which  Bosse,  under  serious 
pretence,  did   not   spare    an    enemy.     They    were   not,    however. 


Fig.  107. — Title  of  the  Manière  Universelle,  by  Desargues,  in  1643,  by  Abraham  Bosse. 

angry   with    the  artist,   for   the    following    year    Bosse    published 
fourteen  plates  for  the  Sicioniiis  printed  at  the  Louvre. 

He    successively    designed     plates    for    the    Histoire   de    Si. 


Abraham  Bosse. 


"79 


Louis,  numerous  vignettes  for  books  of  piety,  figures  for  the 
Pucellc  of  Chapelain  and  for  the  Larcins  de  la  Fortune.  He 
was  always  himself,  refined  and  ingenious,  even  in  the  most 
barren  or  the  most  complicated  subjects. 


Fig.  loS.  —  Print  by  Abraham  Bosse,  representing  the  booksellers 
of  the  Palace  under  Louis  XIII. 

He  has  left  us  in  a  celebrated  print  a  representation  of  a 
bookseller's  shop  of  his  time.  It  is  for  us  an  interesting  work, 
inasmuch  as  it  shows  us  in  a  simple  and  naïve  manner  the 
picturesque  side   of  these  stores,   where  the   dealer   and  his  wife 


i8o  The  Book. 

offered  and  displayed  new  works  to  their  customers.  The  shop 
is  compact,  and  very  much  like  the  open-air  stalls  of  to-day  ; 
posting-bills  placed  above  the  shelves  indicate  the  "  new 
books  ;  "  and  if  the  inscriptions  given  by  Bosse  be  credited, 
the  Palace  dealer  offered  his  books  with  singular  eclecticism  : 
Boccaccio,  Aretin,  the  Asti'ee  of  D'Urfé,  the  Bible,  or  Machia- 
velli.  In  the  hands  of  the  woman  is  seen  the  romance 
Marianne  '■ 

"  Icy  les  cavaliers  les  plus  adventureux 
En  lisant  les  romans  s'animent  à  combattre  ; 
Et  de  leur  passion  les  amants  langoureux 
Flattent  les  mouvements  par  des  vers  de  théâtre," 

says  the  text  of  Bosse.  What  was  commonly  done  then  is 
still  done  ;  they  went  shopping  and  rummaging  the  stalls,  and 
those  of  the  Palace  were  particularly  attractive. 

If  we  credit  Sauvai,  the  increase  in  the  number  of  booksellers, 
in  the  middle  of  the  century,  was  due  to  the  wits  of  the  Hotel 
de  Rambouillet.  The  passion  for  novelty,  for  recent  works,  had 
produced  that  quantity  of  publishers,  he  says,  that  we  have  seen 
on  the  Pont  Neuf,  and  that  w^e  still  see  to-day  at  the  Palace 
and  the  University,  the  number  of  whom  is  so  multiplied  in 
all  these  places  that  in  the  Palace  they  amount  to  more  than 
other  dealers  ;  and  as  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  University, 
they  are  obliged,  in  order  to  lodge  the  rest,  to  extend  the 
ancient  bounds  from  St.  Yves  to  the  river  (Sauvai,  Antiquités 
de  Paris,  viii.,   354). 

In  fact,  each  year  saw  an  increase  in  the  number  of  pub- 
lishers in  corporation,  with  syndic  and  adjuncts.  During  the 
reign  of  Louis  XIII.,  the  single  year  16 10  saw  fifty  new  houses 
started,  and  among  them  Antoine  Vitré,  who  was  to  become 
the   most    illustrious  of  his  contemporaries.      But,  as   there  were 


AXTOIXE    I'/TRK.  l8l 

no  more  than  six  printers,  it  may  be  inferred  that  all  the  rest 
were  booksellers,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  to  begin  with 
those  who  encumbered  afterwards  the  great  salk  of  which  Sauvai 
speaks.  Antoine  Vitré  was  syndic  in  May,  1643,  on  the  acces- 
sion of  Louis  XIV.  He  had  four  adjuncts.  With  him  the  Book 
marked  the  solemn  style  that  the  commencement  of  the  century 
had  imparted  to  it.  Appointed  royal  printer  for  the  Oriental 
languages  in  1621,  he  undertook  a  Syriac  work,  the  first  that 
ever  was  attempted  in  Paris.  The  project  of  a  Polyglot  Bible 
suggested  to  him  the  idea  of  acquiring  for  the  King  the  Oriental 
manuscripts  and  matrices  of  .Savary  de  Brèves.  The  King  left  to 
him  the  care  of  negotiating  the  business,  but  did  not  reimburse 
him  without  numerous  difficulties,  in  the  midst  of  which  the  printer 
almost  lost  the  means  of  conveniently  continuing  his  trade.  The 
advocate  Le  Jay  charging  himself  with  the  enormous  expenses 
necessitated  by  the  Polyglot  Bible,  it  was  set  up  in  the  hope 
that  Cardinal  Richelieu  would  pay  the  cost.  He  was  willing 
to  do  so,  but  required  that  his  name  should  figure  on  the  book  ; 
and  as  Le  Jay,  an  independent  man,  formally  opposed  it,  Vitré 
met  with  ill-will  from  the  Minister,  which  increased  from  day 
to  day.  In  1645  the  impression  was  finished,  but  Le  Jay  was 
ruined,  and  though  we  admire  the  paper,  the  type,  and  the 
extraordinary  size  of  the  nine  volumes  of  the  Polyglot  Bible,  we 
find  in  it  so  many  faults,  errors,  and  misprints  that  it  has  become 
almost  valueless,  being  hardly  worth  its  binding.  There  were 
terrible  mortifications  in  the  business,  and  Vitré  had  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  them  more  than  any  one.  Nevertheless  he  did  not 
let  his  presses  stand  still,  but  published  successively  Arabic, 
Turkish,  and  Persian  works.  His  action  against  the  Savary 
heirs,  as  representing  the  King,  in  the  acquisition  mentioned 
above,    continued    also    after    the    printing    of    the    Bible,    and 


1 82  The  Book. 

hindered  its  progress.  He  struggled  on  ;  and  the  Assembly  of 
Clergy,  of  which  he  was  the  printer,  sought  to  help  him  out  of 
his  difficulties.  The  matter  being  once  terminated,  the  Cardinal 
being  dead,  and  Vitré  having  been  named  by  Colbert  director 
of  the  Royal  Printing  House  in  place  of  Cramoisy,  he  also 
died,  and  was  accused  later  of  having  destroyed  the  types  and 
matrices  of  the  Polyglot  Bible,  so  that  they  should  not  be  used 
after  him.  This  fable,  long  accredited,  has  since  been  ascer- 
tained to  be  false,  for  the  punches  and  matrices  passed  to  the 
Royal  Library,  thence  to  the  Royal  Printing  House,  which  was 
reorganised  in   1691. 

Antoine  Vitré,  in  spite  of  his  misfortunes,  was  a  great 
personage.  He  was  painted  by  Champagne  and  engraved  by 
Morin,  as  was  Richelieu  himself.  The  portrait,  which  we  here 
reproduce  (p.  184),  is  from  the  book  of  M.  Delaborde,  La 
Gravure.  Such  was  the  man  whom  we  meet  at  the  beginning 
of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  as  syndic  of  booksellers  ;  and  it 
was  by  no  means  a  sinecure,  a  canonry  giving  honour  and 
profit  ;  quite  the  other  way.  With  the  Draconian  rules  on  the 
subject,  the  syndic  assumed  a  heavy  burden  towards  the  King, 
as  well  as  towards  its  confreres.  Religious  quarrels  envenomed 
every  question,  and  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes 
had  ior  its  immediate  result  new  and  more  severe  royal 
ordinances. 

The  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  saw  the  zenith  of  engraving  with 
the  burin,  but  not  that  of  printing  or  illustration.  Doubtless  it 
would  be  puerile  to  pretend  that  typography  had  not  made  any 
material  progress  ;  it  had  done  so  in  engraving  and  in  setting 
up  the  type  ;  work  was  done  more  quickly,  because  the  presses 
had  become  more  perfect.  But  the  wise  harmony  of  the 
old   printers,    their   sure    taste,    even    up    to    their    old    irregular 


The  Reign  oe  Louis  xiv.  183 

clichés,   were  no  longer   there  to   form    a  graceful    and  charming 


Fig.  109. — Frontispiece  of  the  Dictionnaire  de  V Académie^  1st  edition,  1694. 

whole,    which  to    modern    precision   is  as    different    as  a  picture 


1 84 


The  Book. 


by  Van  Eyck  from  a  chromo-lithograph.  Under  Louis  XIV., 
titles  became  regular,  following,  as  we  have  said  in  the 
beginning,  and  modelling  themselves  on,  the  affected  and 
peruked  people  who  read  them.  All  art  entered  on  this  path 
of   sublimity    and    grandeur.      The     painter     Le     Brun     is    the 


iiiiitiliiiiiiftàiyfeÉiiiikÉLiAiiÉiw 


Fig.  I  lo. — Antoine  Vitré,  printer  to  tlie  King,  by  Ph.  de  Champagne. 

highest  exponent  of  this  false  Olympus,  where  an  heroic  pose 
became  necessary  for  the  most  simple  movements.  Made 
popular  by  engraving  by  Pesne,  Audran,  Poilly,  Edelinck,  and 
a  hundred  others,  this  tendency  overran  everything  :  art  and 
industry,    painting    and     tapestry,     illustration     and     typography 


SÉBASTIE.X  LECLERC.  185 

itself.  All  was  grand,  in  reverse  of  other  times,  when  all  was 
small  and  mean.  The  embellishments  of  the  Book  were  full 
of  gods  in  perukes  and  goddesses  in  armour,  Louis  XIV.  as 
Apollo,  as  the  sun  illuminating  the  world,  as  we  see  in  the 
frontispiece  to  the  first  edition  of  the  Dictionnaire  de  r Académie'. 
"  Nee  pluribus  impar  "  was  not  the  device  of  one  man  ;  it  was 
the  haughty  and  glorious  cry  of  a  whole  people,  from  great  to 
small,   from  the  sublime  painter  to  the  modest  printer. 

In  most  cases  these  e.xaggerations  are  not  beneficial  to  the 
art.  Here  they  were.  But,  for  the  matter  that  specially  occupies 
us,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  Book  was  much  advanced.  It 
approached  a  marvellous  epoch  of  a  delicate  and  graceful  art  ; 
but  it  did  not  find  its  true  expression  ;  it  dragged  painfully  after 
the  works  of  Plantin,  throwing  its  etchings  and  line  engravings 
heavily  in  the  middle  of  texts,  in  gross  and  bad  taste.  Yet 
taste  in  literature  had  an  onward  tendency  ;  Molière  and  La 
Fontaine  produced  on  their  contemporaries  the  effect  that  in 
our  day  the  naturalists  have  produced  on  the  romanticists  ;  but 
this  was  not  for  long.  Majesty  recovered  its  rights  with 
Bossuet,    Boileau,  and  the  others. 

Sébastien  Leclerc  was  one  of  the  rare  artists  of  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century  who  gave  thought  to  the  vignette  in  the 
midst  of  this  outbreak  of  pompous  commonplace.  A  successor 
of  Callot  in  manner,  sought  after  by  the  publishers,  he  began 
this  style  with  a  romance  of  La  Calprenède,  and  continued  with 
the  Promenade  de  St.  Germain  of  Louis  le  Laboureur,  hailly  de 
Montmorency,  to  whom  Boileau  said  such  curious  things.  This 
bleuette  is  one  of  the  rarest  books  of  Leclerc,  and  we  reproduce 
one  of  the  pages,  with  a  charming  tailpiece,  which  comes  very 
near  those  of  the  eighteenth  century.  There  was,  moreover, 
the    charm   of   this    ingenious    designer  ;    he  adorned    the   works 


1 86 


The  Book. 


of  his  contemporaries  with  graceful  vignettes  and  decorations 
full  of  suppleness.  It  may  be  believed,  besides,  that  he  did 
not  remain  behind  his  confrères  in  figure  composition  or 
allegorical  and  Divine  emblems.  His  art  did  not  go  far  enough 
to  throw  off  the  errors  of  the  existing  school  ;  he  was  content 
not   to    copy  any    one  and    to  make    his    works    truly   his   own. 

JE  laboure  un  champ  plein  crépines 
Qui  ne  rapporte  frmt  ny  fieuY  ^ 
Et  me  fens  ptcjuer  jufûu^au  cœtsr 
Par  mille  pointes  ajja fines. 
Que  mon  defiin  à  de  malheur  i 
Ce  nefi  que  labeur  ^  douleur 


Fig.  III. — Tailpiece  of  Sébastien  Leclerc  for  the  Pronicnailc  lie  St.  Gcriimin. 


Such  were,  for  example,  the  vignettes  of  the  Histoire  de 
Turenne,  where  the  heads  of  the  chapters,  the  ornamented 
letters,  and  the  tailpieces,  harmoniously  blend  with  each  other,  and 
make  the  book,  although  a  little  heavy  as  to  impression,  a  most 
agreeable  work.  Leclerc  then  found  himself  ready  to  design 
vignettes    for    the    works    of    Racine    for    the    publisher    Claude 


SÉBASTIEX   LECLERC.  187 

Barbin,   another    name  frequently  encountered   in    Boileau.     The 
title  of  Vol.   ii.  merits   attention. 

The  same  year  of  this  last  publication,  1676,  Sébastien 
Leclerc  illustrated  the  Metamorphoses  of  Ovid  for  Benserade, 
the  engraving  of  which  cost  the  King  more  than  10,000 
livres.  Thus  adorned,  the  book  had  not  a  bad  appearance, 
but  a  satirist  of  the  time,  Hardin  very  probably,  made  on  it 
this  quatrain  : — ■ 

"  Mais  quant  à  moi  j'en  trouve  tout  fort  beau  ; 
Papier,  dorure,  images,  caractère. 
Hormis  les  vers  qu'il  fallait  laisser  faire 
A  La  Fontaine." 

It  m.ay  be  imagined  what  an  engraver  could  produce 
working  ever  since  1650  and  dying  in  1715,  that  is,  a  life 
of  work  as  long  as  could  be  hoped  for.  Leclerc  was  the 
absolute  contemporary  of  the  King.  He  died,  like  him,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  leaving  work  widely 
scattered  among  books,  funeral  orations,  and  placards.  After 
the  example  of  Callot  and  Bosse,  he  did  not  disdain  satire. 
One  of  his  prettiest  vignettes  served  to  illustrate  some 
pamphlet  of  Richesource  against  the  journalists  of  his  time  ; 
it  represents  a  dandy  of  about    1679  offering  his  gazette: 

"  Venez,  savans  ;  venez  me  faire  vos  avances 
D'un  louis  tous  les  ans  de  contribution  ; 
Vous  aurez  les  lundis  nouvelles  conférences 
Dans  des  cayers  volans  de  cette  impression  ; 
Je  l'ai  jusques  icy  pratiqué  de  la  sorte, 
Et  comme  ce  bâton  soutenu  qui  me  porte." 

This  proves  that  already  the  young  pamphleteers  understood  the 
means  how  to  frighten  the  authors  of  their  time. 

By  the  side  of  this  unrivalled  combatant  we  may  be  per- 
mitted to  place  Lepautre,  twenty  years  older  than  Leclerc,  whose 


1 88 


The  Book. 


studies  had  been  principally  directed  on  architecture.  In  the 
moments  of  leisure  from  his  special  work  he  devoted  himself 
to  frontispieces  and  vignettes  ;  nevertheless,  although  he  had 
before  him  the  charming  designs  of  Leclerc,  he  confined  him- 
self to  a  cold    and  hard    manner,   keeping,    indeed,   as    much    as 


Fig.  112. — Small  figure  of  Sébastien  Leclerc  for  Richesource's  pamphlet. 


possible  to  titles,  in  which  his  particular  talent  could  find  scope. 
He    designed   also    the    Chartreux   Missal  of    1679,   the    Gallia 
Christiana  after  Marot,  the  Dioptrique  Oadaire  of  P.  Chérubin 
engraved    by    Edelinck,   and  a   thousand    other    works    of   small 
repute. 

Very  different   was   François  Chauveau,  who,  without  having 


SÉBASTIKX   LECLERC. 


189 


the  delicacy  of  Sébastien  Leclerc  or  his  art  of  arrangement, 
treated  at  least  with  grace  small  figures  and  illustrations. 
Certainly  there  is  an  enormous  distance  between  these  correct 
and    commonplace    engraved     plates    and    the    delightful     wood 


Fig.  1 13. — Frontispiece  by  C.  Le  Erun,  for  the  first  edition  of  Racine,^  1Ô76. 


engravings  of  the  time  of  Geoffroy  Tory,  for  example.  But,  be 
their  worth  what  it  may,  they  were  in  excellent  keeping  ;  and  even 
with  Molière  they  did  not  cut  such  a  bad  figure.  Chauveau 
was  associated  with  many  of  the  works  of  Leclerc,  who  induced 


190 


The  Book. 


him  often  to  be  less  heavy,  inasmuch  as  Leclerc  corrected 
many  of  his  compositions  in  engraving  them.  It  was  so  with 
Molière,  and  still  more  so  with  Racine  in  the  plate  of  the 
Plaideurs,  in  which  Chauveau  revealed  himself  a  precursor 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Unhappily  he  did  not  always 
follow  this  manner.  Consecutively,  and  with  various  success,  he 
illustrated  Alaric,  Andromaque,  and  the  Metamorphoses  of  Ovid 
by  Benserade,  with  Leclerc  ;  the  Pucellc  of  Chapelain,  and  the 
Tragédies  of  Racine,  to  which  Le  Brun  did  not  disdain  to  put 
his  hand. 

In  short,  the  connecting  link  between  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  and  that  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  the  develop- 
ment of  illustration  is  Sébastien  Leclerc.  He  had  known  the 
artists  of  the  first  period  ;  he  lived  to  see  appear  one  of  the 
precursors  of  the  vignettists  of  the  following  century,  Claude 
Gillot.  Thanks  to  him,  overloaded  titles  and  unskilful  vignettes 
underwent  a  gradual  transformation.  In  the  delicacy  and 
slightness  of  his  designs  may  be  seen  the  dominant  note  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  coquetry,  and  we  get  already  a  foretaste 
of  Choffard.  He  was  nearly  the  only  one  who  did  not  fall 
into  the  exaggerations  of  the  engravers  of  the  time  ;  he  ran 
parallel  with  them  without  touching  them,  anxiously  guarding 
his  own  well-accentuated  personality.  By  the  smallness  and 
slenderness  of  his  figures,  Leclerc  recalls  somewhat  the  school 
of  Fontainebleau  ;  but  he  is  above  all  the  reflection  of  Callot, 
a  Lorrainer  like  himself. 

In  Holland,  a  Frenchman,  Bernard  Picart,  son  of  Etienne 
and  pupil  of  Leclerc,  was  making  a  great  name  as  an  illus- 
trator. He  established  himself  as  a  print-seller  at  Amsterdam 
at  the  sign  of  L Etoile,  and  successively  designed  vignettes  for 
many  works,  among  others  the   Boileau  of  171S.     His  vignettes 


EXGUSH    J  FORK'S.  191 

and  tailpieces,  without  possessing  either  the  spirit  of  Leclerc 
or  the  grace  of  the  eighteenth  century,  express  an  ingenious 
and  inventive  art  that  had  broken  with  the  strained  traditions 
of  preceding   epochs. 

From  these  two  artists  the  decoration  of  the  Book  rapidly- 
advanced.  The  true  form  is  found,  and  charming  designers  are 
not  wanting  to  apply  it. 

The    troubled    state    of   England    during  the  greater    part    of 
the  seventeenth  century  no  doubt  accounts  for  the  fact  that  the 
art    of  the    Book    made    but    very    little    progress.       Theological 
controversies,    the  persecutions   by  the    Puritans,  and,  above    all, 
the  great  civil  war  and  its  antecedents  and  results,  gave  rise  to 
a  flood  of  publications  of  an  ephemeral    kind,   which  from  their 
nature  were  hurriedly  produced  ;    and   there  was  little  room    tor 
pure  literature  and  art.     In  the  early  part  of  the  century,  under 
the    influence  which    Elizabeth    left,   and  which    James    fostered, 
some    important  works  were    issued,    with    finely  engraved    illus- 
trations ;  but  wood  engraving  declined  further  and  further,  until 
it    was    artistically    dead,    to    be    revived    in    the    next    century. 
The  works  of  the  numerous  poets  and    dramatists    were  printed 
in  quarto,  and  collected  editions  of  them    in   folio.      Thus    were 
issued  the  works  of  Shakespeare,   first  collected  by  Jaggard  and 
Blount,    1623,   folio,    with    an    engraved    portrait    by    Droeshout, 
the    faithfulness    of   which  was  vouched  in  an    opposite    page  of 
verse    signed    by    Ben    Jonson.       Don    Quixote    first     appeared 
in    an    English    dress    in    1612-20,  published    by  E.    Blount    in 
quarto  ;    and    Jaggard,     Blount's    partner    in    the    Shakespeare, 
published   Boccaccio's  Decameron,    in    two    volumes    folio,    1620. 
Among    other    notable  works    of   the    early  part  of  the  century 
were  Drayton's  Polyolbion,    161 3;     Chapman's    Ho?nei\    161 1-15, 
folio,    three    volumes  ;    Lord    Bacon,     whose    essays    and    other 


192  The  Book. 

single  publications  appeared  in  the  seventeenth,  to  be  collected 
as  his  Works  in  the  next  century  ;  and  William  Prynne, 
whose  Histrio  JMastrix,  1633,  so  offended  Charles  I.  by  its 
references  to  the  Queen  and  the  court  ladies,  that  the  author 
had  to  undergo  a  severe  and  degrading  punishment.  Many 
of  these  works  were  illustrated  with  engravings  of  merit 
on  steel  and  copper  by  W.  Hollar,  P.  Lombart,  W.  Marshall, 
Hole,  W.  Pass,  W.  Faithorne,  and  R.  Vaughan.  So  that  here 
were  all  the  materials  for  the  foundation  of  an  English  school, 
to  be  cruelly  broken  up  shortly  afterwards  by  the  distractions 
of  civil   warfare. 

In  161 1  Robert  Barker  first  printed  the  Authorised  Version 
of  the  Holy  Bible,  which  has  been  more  often  reprinted  than 
any  other  book,  and  which  e.xists  to  this  day  as  the  great 
standard   of  the   English  language. 

The  taste  for  books  of  travel  which  arose  in  the  last 
century  was  largely  increased  by  the  voyages  and  discoveries 
of  the  English  in  North  America  and  the  subsequent  Puritan 
exodus  there.  These  early  accounts  of  Virginia  and  New- 
England,  many  of  which  are  tracts  of  a  few  leaves  only,  now 
fetch  fabulous  prices.  The  great  collection  of  voyages  under 
the  name  of  Piirchas  :  his  Pilgrimes,  was  printed  in  five  folio 
volumes,  1625-26,  while  De  Bry,  Hulsius,  and  Linschoten 
were  enriching  the  world  with  their  collections  of  travels, 
printed  in  Germany  and  Holland.  All  of  these  works  were 
adorned  with  finely  engraved  plates,  those  to  Purchas  being 
engraved  by  Elstrack,  and,  besides,  it  had  a  famous  map  of 
the  world,   engraved  by   Hondius. 

The  controversial  spirit  engendered  by  the  religious  quarrels 
of  the  century  and  by  the  great  civil  war  gave  incessant  work  to 
the  printers  ;  and  the    many  tracts  and  pamphlets  thus  produced 


EXGIJSH    IVOR  AS.  193 

were  frequently  illustrated  by  crude  and  coarse  woodcuts,  of 
no  value  from  an  artistic  point  of  view,  but  curious  from 
the  indications  they  afford  of  the  costumes  and  manners  of 
the  time. 

The  first  edition  of  Walton's  Angler  was  printed  by 
R.  Marriott  in  1653,  i6mo,  with  plates  in  the  text,  engraved 
on  steel  by  Lombart.  Butler's  Hmiibras  appeared  in  1663-78, 
and  Milton's  Paradise  Lost  in  1667,  quarto.  Fuller's  Worthies 
of  England  was  printed  1662,  folio.  We  have  roughly  men- 
tioned the  principal  English  books  of  the  century,  and  ne.xt 
approach  the  revival  of  literature  and  art  in  the  eighteenth 
century. 


13 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE    BOOK    IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY. 

The  Regency — Publishers  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century — Illustrators 
in  France  ;  Gillot — The  school  of  Watteau  and  Boucher — Cars — The  younger 
Cochin  ;  his  principal  works  in  vignettes — French  art  in  England  ;  Gravelot — 
Eisen — Choffard  —  The  Baisers  of  Dorat  ;  the  Contes  of  Lafontaine — The 
publisher  Cazin  and  the  special  literature  of  the  eighteenth  centur)' —  The 
younger  Moreau  and  his  illustrations — The  Revolution — The  school  of  David — 
Duplessis- Bertaux — The  Book  in  Germany;  Chodowiecki — In  England  ;  Boydell 
and  French  artists — Caslon  and  Basker\-ille — F^nglish  books  with  illustrations — 
Wood  engraving  in  the  eighteenth  century;  the  Papillons  — Printing  offices 
in  the  eighteenth  century. 

ATER      on,     about      the      beginning    of     the 

eighteenth    century,    the    manners    and    tastes 

of    the      French    produced     an     unconscious 

but     tenacious    reaction.       It     seemed    as    if 

the    conceptions    of   romanticism     had    lasted 

long  enough,  and  that  the  cycle  of  chevaliers 

{ox  ù\^  Mmioires  d' Ar-  ^^id    lords    of    the    Middle    Ages    had    passed 

st'^Remy      "^''^     "^  away,    and    that    a    return    to    what    is    called 

the     Natural    was    effected    in    literature    and 

art.     At    the  death    of    Louis  XIV.  the  Olympes  and   its   gods, 

the   majestic    poses    and    suns,   had    become    wearisome.     By  a 

little    half-open    door,  gaiety  escaped    from    its  prison    and  fled. 

For  the  Book  that  door  was  opened  by  the  engraver  Sébastien 

Leclerc. 


EEG/X.WXG    OF    THE    ElGHTEEXTH    CEXTURV.  195 

The  ancient  school  was  replaced.  Constrained  during  three 
quarters  of  a  century,  French  manners  began  to  be  joyous 
under  the  regency  of  the  Due  d'Orleans.  The  representatives 
of  another  age  still  lived,  Rigaud  still  painted  his  portraits  in 
wigs,  but  there  were  new  comers,  enlivened  by  the  new  fashions, 
less  solemn  and  more  bewitching.  Le  Brun  was  then  far  in 
the  past,  and  as  amusing  to  the  ladies  of  the  regency  as  are 
now  to  us  the  fashions  of  the  Second  Empire. 

The  Book,  as  its  manner  was,  followed  the  movement,  and 
gradually  found  the  ■  elements  of  its  decoration  in  the  tenden- 
cies of  the  day.  Small  sizes  were  multiplied,  types  showed 
elegance,  and  vignettes  became  more  and  more  agreeable  and 
spirited.  Amateurs  had  their  ex-libris  or  book-plates  engraved. 
The  smallest  pamphlets  were  covered  with  ornamental  letters, 
head  and  tailpieces,  already  very  clever.  Costume  also,  in  its 
lighter  form,  gave  to  designers  a  means  of  agreeably  com- 
posing a  page  of  illustration  and  disseminating  fancy  in  the 
figures.  These  revolutions  were  simply  brought  about  from 
day  to  day,  as  taste  became  more  pronounced  and  found  its 
expression. 

The  commerce  of  the  Book  was  still  extending  from  the 
end  of  the  preceding  century  ;  and  if  the  number  of  printers 
was  limited  and  arrested  by  certain  somewhat  hard  laws, 
production  in  Paris  was  enormous.  Among  regulations  that 
weighed  most  heavily  on  publishers  figured  the  obligation  put 
upon  them  by  the  ordinance  of  1713  to  deposit  eight  copies  of 
illustrated  books.  In  1725  the  King  issued  other  regulations 
to  affirm  the  rights  of  the  university  over  the  corporation, 
forcing  the  masters  to  assist  in  a  body  at  the  processions  of 
the  Sorbonne  and  to  offer  on  the  Day  of  the  Purification  a 
candle  to  the  rector.      In  spite  of  this  ordinance,   more  religious 


1 96  The  Book. 

than  useful  to  commerce,  the  fashion  of  vignettes  increased. 
The  principal  shops  were  ransacked,  as  they  are  still,  for  novel- 
ties ;  the  Rue  St.  Jacques  and  the  Quai  des  Augustins,  v^rhere 
they  were  grouped,  were  resorted  to.  The  most  important 
booksellers  in  1727  were  Coignard,  the  Barbous — who  essayed 
afterwards,  with  Lengley  Dufresnoy,  to  copy  the  Elzevirs, — 
Cavalier,  Robustel,  Fournier,  Ballard,  and  D'Houry.  Of  the 
two  last,  D'Houry  printed  the  calendars,  and  Ballard  had  the 
privilege  for  music.  Another,  Léonord,  published  the  books  of 
the  Dauphin.  At  these  and  other  publishers',  recent  works 
were  examined,  those  who  did  not  buy  gave  their  advice  and 
took  ideas,  and  so  this  fashion  slowly  set  in.  It  was  thus  that 
Houdart  de  la  Motte  published  with  G.  Dupuis  in  1719  a 
collection  of  fables,  with  illustrations  by  Claude  Gillot,  which 
was  the  talk  at   the  booksellers'. 

All  was  original  in  this  book  :  the  author,  who  had  formed, 
five  years  before,  the  eccentric  idea  of  translating  the  Iliad 
without  knowing  a  word  of  Greek  ;  the  text,  a  kind  of  imitation 
of  Lafontaine,  without  salt  or  savour  ;  the  size,  quarto,  admir- 
ably printed  by  Dupuis,  in  the  Rue  St.  Jacques,  with  plates  by 
Coypel,  Massé,  and,  above  all,  the  charming  vignettes  of  Gillot, 
the  most  pleasing  and  clever  of  all  his  collaborators,  a  sort  of 
Callot  fallen  into  the  eighteenth  century,  and  who  ought  to  take 
the  first  place  in  it  by  primogeniture.  Gillot  has  been  called, 
not  without  reason,  "the  last  pagan  of  the  Renaissance;"  and 
this  pagan  had  the  honour  to  give  us  Watteau. 

The  Count  de  Caylus  tells  the  story.  Gillot  had  resigned 
the  pencil  for  the  etching  needle  on  seeing  the  work  of  his 
pupil.  He  had  no  reason  to  complain  ;  his  pictures  were  of  no 
value,  and  his  prints  gave  other  artists  the  idea  of  imitating 
them.      The    whole    French    school    of    the    eighteenth    century 


Claude  Gii.lot. 


197 


may  have  had  its  origin  in  this  forgotten  bool<,  illustrated  by 
the  master  of  Watteau.  In  fact,  in  the  manner  of  the  little 
etching  here  given  we  may  easily  perceive  the  coquetry  and 
affectation  that  were  later  the  dominant  tone  of  vignettes. 
For,  it  may  well  be  said,  the  graceful,  feminine,  and  arch 
manner  of  which  we  are  going  to  speak  was,  above  all,  con- 
ventional and  false.  In  opposition  to  the  designers  and 
engravers    of    the    fifteenth    and    beginning    of     the     sixteenth 


Fig.  115.— Vignette  by  Gillot  for  the  Chicn  d  k  Uiat,  fable  by  Houdart  de  la  Motte,  in  1719. 

century,  who  reproduced  naturally  scenes  of  daily  life  even  if 
somewhat  idealized,  it  came  to  pass  that,  through  the  moral 
education  of  the  artists,  they  put  forth  the  ideal  in  the  most 
ordinary  things  of  life.  Shepherds  were  no  longer  the  gross 
and  rustic  peasants  that  we  find  in  primitive  Flemish  paintings 
or  in  the  Hours  of  Simon  Vostre  ;  they  were  coxcombs, 
pomaded  and  adorned  with  ribbons,  playing  the  bagpipes,  and 
making  love  to   court   shepherdesses. 

At  first   it  was    Watteau  who    influenced    all    the   engravers 


198  Tue  Book. 

in  the  pretty  and  the  smart  ;  Boucher  did  the  rest  ;  and  fatally 
the  Book  followed,  and  followed  impetuously,  surpassing,  if 
possible,  the  painted  works.  If  the  severe  poses,  the  grave 
touch,  of  the  preceding  century  are  no  longer  found,  they  often 
go  too  far  in  the  contrary  direction.  It  may  be  well  said 
here  that  the  arts  are  ordinarily  the  result  of  the  manners  of 
an  epoch.  The  financial  scheme  of  Law  was  not  without 
influence  on  the  entire  eighteenth  century,  by  the  terrible 
manner  in  which  it  upset  fortunes,  awoke  appetites,  gave  rein 
to  aspirations  hitherto  held  in  check.  Claude  Gillot,  the 
designer,  was  one  of  the  first  victims  of  the  Scotch  banker  ;  he 
lost  his  fortune  on  the  Exchange  ;  but  who  may  say  what  his 
artistic  ambition  dreamt  of  in  the  midst  of  all  these  disorders  ? 
One  thing  is  certain  :  that  Watteau,  his  pupil,  broke  abruptly 
with  the  style  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Laurent  Cars  was  the  engraver  who  multiplied  the  com- 
positions of  Boucher,  and  set  the  fashion.  He  engraved  also, 
after  the  painter  of  shepherds  and  nymphs,  illustrations  to 
Molière,  the  most  agreeable  that  there  are  for  style  and  spirit. 
In  engraving  certain  works  of  Lemoyne,  Cars  did  not  com- 
pletely desert  the  ancient  school.  He  appears  thus  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  as  if  divided  between  two 
manners,  each  equally  possible  to  him. 

The  work  of  these  engravers  was  almost  exclusively  done 
by  etching,  biting  with  acid  a  copper  plate  covered  with 
varnish,  on  which  the  drawing  was  made  by  means  of  a  point. 
This  process,  always  previously  used  for  sketches,  served  also 
for  finishing  vignettes,  which  up  to  then  had  been  finished  by 
the  burin.  The  suppleness  of  the  work  was  greater,  and  the 
artist  remained  more  himself  than  he  could  be  with  the  stiff 
cutting  instrument  of  the  seventeenth  century. 


Cars— The  Quarto  Muijere.  199 

The  sizes  of  books  had  not  yet  all  come  to  octavo  or 
duodecimo.  The  Œuvi'cs  de  Molière  published  by  Prault  in 
1734  in  six  volumes  quarto,  under  the  direction  of  Marc 
Antoine  Joly,  give  the  idea  of  an  enormous  work,  not  at  all 
of  theatrical  pieces.  To  tell  the  truth,  these  somewhat  ex- 
aggerated dimensions  gave  artists  more  room  for  illustration  ; 
later,  when  smaller  forms  predominated,  text  and  engravings 
were  so  compressed  that  they  were  not  always  clear  and  readable 
to  every  eye.  However,  the  quarto  was  not  graceful,  it  was  not 
in  harmony  with  the  delicate,  the  pastoral  pieces,  then  in  vogue, 
and  as  a  current  size  it  had  to  disappear  in  illustrated 
publications. 

The  class  of  artisans  employed  on  the  Book  is  hardly 
identical  in  the  eighteenth  century  with  that  of  printers  and 
publishers.  In  the  beginning,  as  we  have  seen,  the  engravers 
of  wood  blocks  and  the  printers  were  often  the  same  people, 
preparing  their  characters  or  their  blocks,  and  afterwards 
putting  them  under  the  press.  The  great  printing  offices  had 
very  quickly  changed  that.  Each  particular  work  had  its 
special  workman.  Typography  had  its  type-founders,  com- 
positors, forwarders,  inkers,  and  pressmen.  In  the  eighteenth 
century  this  was  supplemented  by  designers,  engravers,  plate- 
printers  ;  and  these  different  professions  occupied  themselves  on 
the  Book  in  manipulating  the  sheets  in  their  turn.  In  the 
midst  of  this  crowd,  the  designers  and  engravers,  esteemed  as 
was  their  collaboration,  were  not  the  most  honoured.  Their 
homes  often  reflected  their  life  as  reckless  artists,  quick  to 
spend  the  money  earned  during  the  week  ;  and  we  shall  have 
occasion   to  name  some  of   the   more  miserable  among  them. 

The  booksellers,  on   the  contrary,  had  become  great  person- 
ages.     In    the    preceding    chapter    we    have  seen  Cramoisy  and 


200  THE    BOOK. 

Vitré,  to  name  only  these  two,  acquire  the  greatest  honours,  the 
latter  even  having  been  painted  by  Philippe  de  Champagne, 
with  many  other  lords  of  the  court.  In  the  eighteenth  century 
there  were  Brunet,  Ballard,  Mariette,  Chardon,  François  Didot, 
and  a  host  of  others,  during  the  time  of  Watteau,  Boucher, 
and  Cars,  of  which  we  have  just  spoken  ;  and  these  several 
publishers  had  houses  of  their  own,  and  furnished  shops  and 
printing  offices  with  the  best  appurtenances.  Saved  from  falling 
into  negligences  by  royal  regulations  on  printing,  they  composed 
imperishable  works,  with  admirable  characters,  on  paper  of  the 
first  quality  ;  and,  usual  consequence  of  their  high  position,  they 
paid  the  artists  charged  with  their  work  badly.  It  would  be 
long  and  tedious  to  enter  into  this  matter  in  detail.  They  made 
progress  by  slow  degrees,  and  in  good  time  they  united  marvel- 
lously copperplate  engraving  to  printed  text,  so  marvellously 
that  in  comparing  their  works  with  the  wood  blocks  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  it  may  be  asked  which  of  the  two  styles  is 
superior  in  elegance  and  good  taste. 

One  of  the  ancestors  of  this  group  of  vignettists  was  the 
younger  Cochin,  who  had  engraved  the  plate  of  the  sparrows 
in  the  fables  of  Houdart,  illustrated  by  Gillot.  Cochin,  in  spite 
of  his  passion  for  allegory  and  his  very  marked  taste  for  aftecta- 
tion,  gave,  it  may  be  said,  with  the  designer-engraver  Saint- 
Aubin,  an  enormous  impulse  to  the  art  of  adorning  books. 
From  the  beginning  of  his  career  he  worked  for  the  publishers, 
designing  frontispieces,  ornamented  letters,  and  tail-pieces,  or 
transferring  to  copper  the  drawings  of  others.  Singular  type 
of  artist,  educated,  well  brought  up,  epicurean  and  spendthrift, 
friend  of  great  lords,  and  protected  by  IMadame  de  Pompadour, 
whose  young  brother  Abel  Poisson  he  conducted  over  Italy, 
Cochin  did  everything,  was  ready  at  the  least  request,  inventing 


Cochin. 


20I 


curious    menus,  giving   representations  of  fêtes,    and  yet   finding 
the  time  to  lavish  on  books  and  vignettes. 

He  worl^ed  chiefly  for  Jombert,  a  sort  of  learned  bookseller, 
King's  printer  to  the  artillery,  who  dates  from  July  1736. 
Jombert  held  receptions  to  painters,  gave  little  private  soirées, 
which  Cochin  attended,  and  there  he  daily  made  numerous 
friends.  It  was  in  this  house,  of  so  special  a  character,  and, 
it     may    be    said,    so     little    artistic    at    first   sight,    that    Cochin 


Fig.  116. — Vignette  for  Daphnis  et  Chloc  by  Cochin,  for  Coustelier's  edition. 

invented  his  best  frontispieces,  among  them  that  of  the  Calatl 
Différentiel,  that  of  the  Astronomie  Physique,  and  the  plates 
of  the  Méthode  de  Dessin,  after  Boucher.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  to  produce  engraved  titles,  with  which  the  publisher  Prault 
ornamented  his  dainty  volumes,  and  which  were  imitated,  up  to 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  by  all  the  illustrators  who 
followed.  In  the  title  to  the  works  of  Madame  Deshoulières 
the   letter  itself  is   engraved.      Since  then    the    open   letter  has 


203  THE  Book. 

been  employed  in  typography.  These  vignettes  were  used  many 
times  by  publishers,  sometimes  simply  effacing  the  inscription, 
sometimes  reproducing  the  original  design  by  a  different  artist. 
The  cupid  with  the  swan  was  used  in  1744  to  decorate  a 
Jeriisalem  Delivered  in  Italian,  by  the  same  publisher,  Prault  ; 
it  was  then  engraved  by  Aveline.  Fessard  engraved  the  second 
plate,  which  is  here  reproduced. 

Nearly  all  the  frontispieces  of  the  Book  with  vignettes  of  the 
eighteenth  century  preserve  this  arrangement  ;  an  ornamented 
and  draped  border,  with  garlands  of  roses,  symbols,  and  cupids, 
in  the  middle  of  the  title,  in  red  and  black,  composed  in  open 
letter,  often  a  scroll  with  the  address  of  the  publisher,  but 
rarely  a  mark.  It  was  the  time  of  little  winged  cupids,  god- 
desses, and  gods.  The  goddesses  were  the  favourites  of  the 
kings,  Madame  de  Pompadour  or  the  princesses,  but  rarely  of 
the  virtuous  Marie  Leczinska,  too  plain  and  too  much  ignored 
to  tempt   the  artists  ;    the  kings   or  the   princes  were  the  gods. 

After  Jombert,  Prault,  and  Coustellier,  Cochin  worked  for 
François  Didot,  syndic  of  the  printers,  for  whom  he  prepared 
a  set  of  illustrations  for  Molière.  Unfortunately  Didot  died  in 
1757,  and  the  project  fell  with  him.  Of  the  work  of  Cochin 
there   only   remains   the  set  of   Tartufe  etchings  in  octavo. 

In  the  vortex  into  which  he  was  plunged,  he  successively 
illustrated  the  Œuvres  de  Roîisseau,  published  at  Brussels, 
quarto  ;  those  of  Boileau,  published  by  David  and  Durand, 
octavo  ;  and  Henault's  Histoire  de  France,  in  the  same  size, 
with  numerous  vignettes.  One  of  these  should  be  noted  in  a 
book  treating  on  printing  ;  it  is  that  in  which  Cochin  pretends 
to  show  to  his  contemporaries  the  interior  of  a  workshop 
in  1470.  Without  doubt  the  sketch  of  this  print  was  taken  in 
one  of  the  houses  frequented  by  him — at  Jombert's,   Didot's,  or 


Grave  LOT. 


203 


David  and  Durand  s — for  that  room  in  which  compositors  are 
working  and  printed  sheets  drying  was  not  an  invention 
of  Cochin,  and  served  to  reproduce  a  printing  office  of  the 
eighteenth   century,   such   as  it  existed. 

Around    Cochin    soon    worlced    a    number    of  designers    and 


Fig.  117. — Title-page  engraved  by  Fcssard  after  Cochin  for  the  works  of 
Madame  Deshoulières,  1747. 

etchers,  too  prudent  to  lose  the  opportunity.  The  fashion  set  in 
for  bool:s  beribboned,  festooned,  and  flowered.  Hubert  François 
Gravelot  had  carried  to  London  this  style  of  new  works,  for 
he  knew,  better  than  any  one,  how  to  decorate  with  letters, 
figures,  and  tailpieces.  He  did  not  engrave  much  himself, 
leaving  this   work   to   lesser  artists,  and   contenting  himself  with 


204 


The  Book. 


subtle    invention    and    graceful    subjects.      With    Eisen,    Cochin, 
and  Moreau,  he  is  the   French  artist  in  the  sense  of  the  time, 


^^^JÎrtTjSv' 


It  ùrAWht   tnVCR' 

Fig.  Ii8. — Vignette  taken  from  P.  Corneilles  Theatre,  by  Gravelot. 

free,  bold,  and  ingenious,  but  perhaps  a  little  out  of  place  in 
England.  He  published,  nevertheless,  his  illustrations  to  the 
Decameron  in  1757-61,  five  vols,  royal  8vo,  one  of  his  most  curious 


Choffard. 


20S 


sets  of  plates,  and  a  hundred  various  vignettes.  On  his  return 
to  France  he  designed  the  Théâtre  of  P.  Corneille,  from  which 
the    Galerie   de  Palais    is    here    reproduced,    on    account    of  the 


f. 


^:: 


<4 


m 


i'^i 


illustration  of  book- 
selling which  it  represents.  In 
1764  the  large  salon  of  the  Palace 
was  still,  as  in  the  time  of  Abraham 
Bosse,  a  place  where  shops  were 
fitted  up,  and  the  new  books  dis- 
cussed. Side  by  side  with  the 
dressmakers  and  merchants  of 
every  category,  the  bookseller 
offers  to  his  customer  the  recent 
products  of  Parisian  presses.  Cer- 
tain works  were  sold  under  cover 
and  not  shown  ;  there  is  here 
■If^j  something  to  pique  the    curiosity 


m 


M 


^ 


17^ 


-^ 


Fig.  119. — Eorder  designed  bj-  Choffard  in  175S. 

of    idle    young    seigneurs    whose    strolls    in    the    galleries    were 
protracted. 

Eisen    has    a    simplicity,    a    good    taste,    and    a    special    and 


2o6 


The  Book. 


singularly  perfect  dash  for  artistic  effect  in  combination  with 
typography.  It  is  a  pity  that  this  designer  had  no  consultative 
voice   in   the  choice  of  impression   and  getting  up  of  the  Book. 


TOmGE 

De  Oclui   L  1/ 


Fig.  120. — Frontispiece  by  Eiscn  for  the  Voyage  by  l'Abbé  de  la  Porte,  1751. 


The  union  of  these  two  forces,  the  vignette  and  the  composition, 
is  so  close  that  we  are  tempted  to  believe  that  one  was  made 
for  the  other,  neither  venturing  to  assert  itself.  In  the  pretty 
and  elaborate   inventions    of   the    artists  reigned    a  lackadaisical 


Lafoxtalxe's  CoyTES.  207 

affectation  that  was  delightfully  becoming  ;  the  rock-work,  which 
it  still  had,  suited  admirably  the  borders  of  the  first  page. 
The  Lettres  d'une  Péruvienne  has  a  very  pleasing  title,  differing 
little,  on  the  whole,  from  that  of  Madame  Deshoulicres,  by 
Cochin.  It  is  the  same  with  the  Lettres  Turques,  published 
at  Amsterdam  in  1750,  and  generally  with  all  the  frontispieces 
signed  by  him.  As  to  the  other  decorations  of  the  Book, 
there  were  also  a  number  of  ingenious  artists,  combining  cupids 
and  flowers,  heaping  up  blazons,  delighting  in  playing  with  accu- 
mulated difficulties.  Under  this  assuredly  involuntary  but  real 
direction,  publications  attained  proportions  of  luxury  and  co- 
quetry until  then  unknown.  The  volume  of  Les  Baisers  by 
Dorat  (La  Haye  et  Paris,  1770)  would  not  have  lived  but  for 
Eisen   and  the  delightful   fancies  with  which  he  adorned  it. 

At  the  same  time,  we  find  Choffard,  another  designer  and 
etcher  of  much  repute,  and  the  most  sought  after  by  the 
booksellers.  Under  his  pencil  the  vignette  became  a  c/ief- 
d'œuvre,  the  tailpiece  was  a  delightful  compound  of  judicious 
and  sportive  ornament,  the  taste  for  which  grew  more  and 
more.  From  delicate  foliage  are  suspended  roses,  shepherds' 
pipes,  lyres,  and  zithers.  With  the  zephyrs  scrolls  or  ribbons 
float,  carried  by  winged  cupids.  The  initial  letters  are  real 
pictures,  of  such  fineness  and  precision  that  the  difficulties  of 
their  reproduction  prevent  us  from  putting  them  before  the 
reader. 

When  the  Fermiers  généraux,  those  great  amateur  financiers 
of  the  last  century,  conceived  the  idea  of  an  edition  of  Les 
Contes  of  Lafontaine  at  their  expense,  their  eyes  naturally 
fell  upon  Eisen  and  Choffard,  the  artists  best  qualified  to 
illustrate  the  inimitable  fancies  of  the  great  poet.  The  first  had  ■ 
for    his    task    the    composition    of  the    separate    plates,    Choffard 


2o8  The  Book. 

the  general  decoration.  Ficquet  was  added  for  the  portrait 
of  the  bonhomme  Lafontaine — Ficquet,  whose  specialty  in 
this  genre  was  dazzling  in  its  delicacy  and  spirit  ;  Diderot 
wrote  a  short  introduction  ;  the  composition  was  confided 
to  a  printer  of  the  first  order,  and  it  was  put  on  sale  by 
Barbou  (Paris,  1762). 


Fig.  121. — Vignette  by  Eisen  for  the  Quiproquo  in  the  Contes  of  Lafontaine, 
in  the  edition  of  the  Ferniieis  Ge'ncraitx, 

It  is  not  a  book  to  be  recommended  from  a  moral  point  of 
view,  but  never  did  typographical  art,  in  combination  with  that 
of  designers  and  engravers,  obtain  a  more  complete  success  :  the 
size  in  octavo,  the  clear  impression,  united  with  the  dimensions 
of  the  plates  in  a  harmonious  elegance,  well  calculated  to  please 


The  Younger  M  ore  au.  209 

the  very  rich  personages  and  the  joyous  amateurs  to  whom 
Les  Contes  address  themselves.  Although  Eisen  has  dressed 
the  greater  part  of  the  characters  in  the  costume  of  his  time, 
which  is  a  little  hurtful  to  one's  feelings  to-day,  it  might  be 
imagined  that  it  was  Lafontaine  who  was  mistaken,  so  com- 
pletely do  these  delicate,  equivocal  tales  appear  to  have  been 
created  for  the  seigneurs  of  the  time  of  Louis  XV. 

All  the  special  literature  sought  for  then  by  rich  people 
had  not  the  value  of  the  Contes.  There  was  at  Rheims  a 
person,  who  has  to-day  become  à  la  mode,  as  he  was  in 
the  time  of  Louis  XVI.,  who  sold  under  cover  of  secrecy 
a  quantity  of  licentious  books  of  the  better  kind,  adorned 
with  figures  by  Eisen,  Marillier,  or  Cochin  ;  this  was  Cazin. 
an  artist  in  his  way,  although  his  good  name  suffered  under 
a  scandalous  trial.  An  order  of  the  Council  of  State  in 
1764  enjoined  him  to  cease  his  trade  in  the  Place  Royale 
at  Rheims,  where  he  sold  his  particular  merchandise.  It 
appears  that  the  sentence  was  not  without  appeal,  for  we 
find  Cazin  at  Paris  about  1785.  He  was  one  of  those  who 
were  ruined  by  the  Revolution,  after  he  had  popularised 
the  editions  known  as  Petits  Formats,  printed  by  Valadel, 
of  Paris. 

We  have  come  to  the  most  beautiful  illustrated  books  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  To  the  illustrious  artists  of  whom  we 
have  just  spoken  are  to  be  added  the  younger  Moreau,  and 
St.  Aubin,  the  former  nephew  by  marriage  of  the  publisher 
Prault,  and  therefrom  a  decorator  of  the  Book,  the  other, 
thrown  by  Gravelot  into  full  work,  rapidly  became  the  most 
subtle  and  clever  of  the  etchers  of  the  time.  Moreau  did 
not  wait  long  after  his  marriage  before  setting  to  work. 
He  began  with  ornaments  destined  for   the  Histoire  de  France 

14 


!IO 


The  Book. 


of  President  Hénault  ;  then  he  composed,  in  his  own  particular 
manner,  titles  and  tailpieces  for  his  uncle  by  marriage.  In 
the  Book  he  is  the  cultivator  of  garlands  of  roses,  which  he 
grouped  with  an  ideal  grace  ;  he  twined  them  round  the 
borders  of  his  frontispieces,  and  applied  them  judiciously  in 
his  tailpieces.  He  excelled  in  inventing  subjects  referring  to 
the  text  which  were  not  merely  commonplace  ornaments 
suitable    for    anything.     The    tailpiece    on    p.     213,    taken    from 


Liia'aiFe    Oit.-iy  des  Amoisllins 

/'    )  o  1'     ^ r-    '' 

la  Mu.riaiK'  noiititjiii:  it^ifé  La  rui  Lru-L<:c<eui 

p^l    V^nd  tfujz^'  •rjJà'i)  d^Li.'riJ^  Lnri  iL:  Frtuusi:  ijtte  '^ej  Puii^ 
Jimcilt^uj-  til)  JiffirrfiiJ  jfi^c'trtTA',  t."*  Uj    vcrw   if^^uir^riuTU 


Fig.  122.— Card  of  the  publisher  Frault,  uncle  by  marriage  of  Moreau  le  Jeune. 

the  works  of  Molière,  brings  forcibly  to  mind  the  Médecin 
vialgré  Lui,  with  its  wood-cutter  unmercifully  beaten  with 
sticks  and  muffled  in  a  doctor's  robe.  It  is  the  same  with 
other  illustrations,  which  cannot  be  displaced  from  the  position 
assigned  to  them  by  the  artist  without  loss  of  meaning. 

The  year  1773,  which  saw  the  publication  by  De  Bret  of 
the  Œuvres  de  Molière,  may  perhaps  be  considered  as  that  in 
which  the  French  Book  of  the  eighteenth  century  reached  its 
culminating   point.       M.    de    Laborde,  first  valet  de  chambre    of 


The   Younger  m  ore  au. 


21  I 


the  King  and  governor  of  the  Louvre,  pubHshed  with  De 
Lormel,  printer  to  the  Academy  of  Music,  his  celebrated 
collection  of  Cliansons,  dedicated  to  the  young  Dauphiness 
Marie  Antoinette,  and  partly  illustrated  by  the  younger  Moreau. 
The  work  is  exquisite,  and  of  simple  grace,  by  which  the 
princess  was  particularly  touched,  and  which  anticipated  his 
designs  for  Le  Devin  dit,  Jli/age.  The  sentimental  note  of 
the  century  was  struck  ;  in  it  the  insipid  love  of  shep- 
herdesses tenderly  sighed,  and  the  designer  has  rendered 
delightfully    this    arch    side    of  the    pastoral    song. 


Fig.  123. — Tailpiece  from  the  Miiicciii  iimlgic'  Lui,  by  Moreau  le  Jeune. 


Our  task  does  not  permit  us  to  linger  over  the  works 
of  this  prolific  and  charming  artist,  but  we  must  mention 
his  inimitable  plates  to  J.  J.  Rousseau,  the  finest  and  most 
agreeable  of  his  compositions  and  vignettes,  also  his 
masterpiece,  the  Histoire  du  Costume,  containing  the  most 
typical  designs  of  fashionable  French  life  just  before  the 
Revolution. 

As  evidencing  the  activity  of  French  artists  of  the  Book 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  it  may  not  be  without  interest 
to  cite  the  number  of  works  illustrated  by  the  better-known 
artists    as    enumerated    in    the    last    edition    of   M.    H.    Cohen's 


212 


The  Book. 


valuable   Guide  dc  r Amateur  de  Livres  à    Gravures  du  XVI H' 

Siècle  : — 


Borel,  2g  ; 
Boucher,  47  ; 
Cars,  13  ; 
Choffard,  50  ; 
Cochin,   143  ; 
Duplessis-Bertaux,  22  ; 
Eisen,  135  ; 
Fragonard,  10  ; 


Freudenberger,  7  ; 
Gravelot,  86  ; 
Le  Barbier,  54  ; 
Le  Bas,  39; 
Lemire,  77  ; 
Lempereur,  68  ; 
Longueil,  97  ; 
Marinier,  116  ; 


Patas,  65  ; 
Petit,  23 
Picart,  62  ; 
Ponce,  65  ; 
St.  Aubin,  70  ; 
Simonet,  83  ; 


and  we  also  should  refer  the  reader  to  the  valuable  work  by 
E.  and  J.  de  Concourt,  L'Art  du  xZhne  Siècle,  containing 
90S  reproductions  of  the  best  works  by  Watteau,  Chardin, 
Boucher,  Latour,  Greuze,  Les  Saint- Aubin,  Gravelot,  Cochin, 
Eisen,  Moreau,  Debucourt,  Fragonard,  Prud'hon.  2  vols.,  4to, 
Paris,    1882. 

With  the  Revolution  the  decline  of  the  Book  in  France 
arrives,  as  that  of  all  the  arts.  Moreau,  a  friend  of  David, 
had  become  affected  by  the  new  ideas  and  the  burlesque 
renaissance  in  imitation  of  Greek  and  Roman  art.  He  made 
his  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  the  gods,  and  engraved  simple  souls 
on  wood  to  punish  himself  for  having  painted  the  elegancies 
of  fallen  tyrants.  At  this  game,  vigour,  as  well  as  suppleness, 
was  lost  ;  and  if  he  had  had  only  the  artistic  propensity  of  the 
Revolution,  his  daughter,  married  to  Charles  Vernet,  could  not 
have  written  of  him,  "  That  which  can  be  most  admired  is,  at 
the  same  time,  the  fecundity  and  flexibility  of  Moreau's  talent, 
that  marvellous  facility  of  conceiving  a  picturesque  scene  and 
disposing  it  in  an  interesting  and  truthful  manner  in  the  least 
extended  space."     This  was  true  before, — but  after  ? 

In  spite  of  his  passion  for  the  ideas  and  men  of  the  Revo- 
lution,   Moreau    found     himself     at    the    end    of    his    resources 


The  Youxger  M  or  eau. 


213 


Renouard,  the  publisher,  took  him  up  as  he  had  received  St. 
Aubin,  to  whom  he  advanced  sum  after  sum  to  prevent  him 
dying  of  hunger  Thus,  hke  most  of  his  contemporaries, 
Moreau.     pressed    by   want,    "'prit,    qiiitta,    reprit   la    cidrasse    et 


Fig.  124. — Vignette  of.the  Pardon  Ob/eiiii,  designed  by  Moreau  le  Jeune, 
for  Laborde's  C/miisous,  in  1773. 


/a    /laïre."     He    had    worked    for  everj'body  :    for    Louis   X\T., 
for  the  Republic, ^for  Napoleon   I. 

"  Moreau  dota  la  République 
De  la  fleur  de  son  dévoûment, 
Beau  dévoûment  ! 
Il  le  jura  sur  une  pique  .  .  . 
Souffla  le  vent, 
Il  emporta  pique  et  serment  !  '.' 


214 


THE  Book. 


The  worst  of  it  is,  that  after  his  designs  for  Ovid,  Molière, 
and  Roîisseau,  dating  from  the  reign  of  Louis  XVL,  he  should 
have  done  them  again  in  1804,  1806,  and  180S.  The  difference 
was  great,  even  probably  for  his  publishers,  Renouard  and 
Dupréel.  It  does  not  appear  either  that  the  pontiff  of  the  new 
school,  David,  knew  of  his  distress,  for  Moreau  succumbed 
in  1 8 14  to  a  cancerous  scirrhus  on  the  right  arm,  forgotten, 
and   in  the  greatest  misery. 

We  have  passed  somewhat  quickly  to  the  end  of  the  century 
because  it  is  of  no  importance  to  name  each  of  the  publishers 
and  artists,  but  only  to  sketch  briefly  their  tastes  or  their 
manner.  Nor  have  we  dwelt  long  on  the  engravers  so  called, 
because  of  their  number  ;  but  their  dexterity  remains  proverbial  ; 
they  handled  the  etching-needle  with  e.Ktreme  suppleness,  and 
often  improved  the  drawings  of  illustrators  during  the  process. 
Many  of  these,  not  to  say  all,  made  use  themselves  of  the 
etching-needle,  St.  Aubin  for  example,  who  had  the  power 
of  giving  to  the  work  of  others  his  personal  mark  and 
character. 

The  Revolution  passing  over  some  among  those,  ruined 
them,  and,  as  stated  above,  they  followed  the  movement,  and 
lost  themselves  in  the  school  of  David.  It  was  Duplessis- 
Bertaux  who,  after  having  furnished  to  Cazin,  the  publisher, 
vignettes  for  his  Recueil  des  Meilleurs  Contes  en  Vers,  1778, 
and  many  other  books,  after  having  worked  for  Didot,  devoted 
himself  to  patriotic  engraving  and  to  the  reproduction  of 
scenes  of  the  Revolution.  When  he  published  his  Tableaux 
Historiques,  in  three  volumes  folio,  adorned  with  nearly  two 
hundred  large  plates,  it  was  under  the  Consulate,  that  is  to 
say,  far  from  the  time  when  the  work  was  begun.  Renouvier 
assures  us,  with  his  exclusive  disdain  for  the  eighteenth  century, 


D  uplessis-Ber  ta  ux. 


215 


that  Duplessis-Bertaux  was  a  mystifier,   and   that    his  scenes   of 
the    Revolution  were  a    hoax,   "  in  the  kind   of   spirit   in  vogue 


Fig.  125,— Title  designed  by  Morcau  le  Jeune  in  1769  for  the  publisher  Prault. 

under  the  Directory."  The  truth  is  that  the  artist,  in  place 
of  being  a  cheerful  Callot,  as  might  be  thought  from  his' 
manner  of  engraving,    so   like    that  of   the    Lorraine    artist,    was 


2i6  The  Book. 

imbued  with  the  emphatic  and  exaggerated  impressions  of  the 
first  Republic,  its  sans-culottes  in  the  poses  of  the  Sabines  and 
its  tricoteîises  apeing  Penelope. 

The  immense  artistic  advance  made  in  France  in  the 
eighteenth  century  in  the  manufacture  and  illustration  of  the 
Book  made  itself  felt  throughout  Europe.  In  Italy,  Giam- 
battista  Bodoni,  born  at  Saluzzo,  in  Piedmont,  1740,  who  was 
first  employed  at  the  Propaganda  Office,  Rome,  1758,  devoted 
his  attention  chiefly  to  the  study  of  oriental  alphabets.  He  was 
placed,  175S,  at  the  head  of  Duke  Ferdinand's  new  printing 
office  at  Parma,  and  became  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
printers  of  Italy.  He  printed  Epithalamia  exoticis  Unguis  reddita 
in  twenty-five  languages,  1775  (in  connection  with  the  marriage 
of  the  Prince  of  Piedmont  with  Princess  Clotilde  of  France),  and 
a  valuable  edition  of  Homer,  three  vols.,  1808,  inscribed  to 
Napoleon  I.,  for  which  he  received  a  pension  of  ^120.  In 
Spain  we  find  Joachim  Ibarra,  born  1725  in  Saragossa,  "the 
Spanish  Bodoni,"  with  the  title  of  Court  printer.  He  raised 
the  art  of  printing  to  a  hitherto  unknown  height  in  Spain, 
and  amongst  his  works  we  may  mention  the  editions  de  luxe 
of  the  Bibie,  a  Spanish  translation  of  Sa/hist,  The  History  of 
Spain  by  Mariatia,  and  above  all  his  fine  edition  of  Don 
Qtiixote,  in  4  vols.  4to,  with  brilliant  illustrations  (1780),  which 
is  considered  the  chef-dœuvie  of  Ibarra's  press.  After  his  death 
(in  1785)  his  widow  continued  the  business,  and  issued  the 
Diccionario   de   la   Langna    Castellana,    fol.,    1803. 

In  Germany,  Chodowiecki,  born  at  Dantzic  of  a  family  of 
apothecaries,  developed  his  talent  from  ornamenting  the  boxes 
of  his  father,  and  from  1758  to  1794  he  designed  numerous 
plates  for  books  and  almanacs,  a  little  heavy  in  engraving, 
but   singularly    clever  in    composition.      In    a    diary  of   1773,   he 


Chodowiecki.  217 

depicted    the    incidents    of  his   journey    from    Berh'n    to    Danzig 


Fig.  126. — Frontispiece  of  the  Glossarimn  of  Du  Danpe,  Paris,  Osmont,  1733. 

on    horseback  ;     he    illustrated     besides     Goethe's     Werther   and 


2i8  The  Book. 

Hermann  unci  Dorothea,  Lessing's  Ulinna  z'oti  Barnhelm, 
Voss'  Luise,  and  numerous  other  works.  There  were  some 
other  clever  designers  and  engravers,  but  the  Book  did  not 
make  so  much  progress  in  Germany  as  in  France  and 
England. 

In  England  a  vast  improvement  was  manifested.  Fine 
types  were  cast  by  John  Baskerville  and  William  Caslon  ; 
printing  machines  were  perfected.  Baskerville,  born  1706,  at 
Wolverley,  Worcestershire,  is  considered  the  father  of  modern 
English  typography.  Commencing  type-founding  in  1750,  for 
Cambridge,  he  contracted  with  the  University  for  printing  a 
folio  edition  of  the  Bible,  also  of  the  Common  Prayer  Book, 
paying  a  royalty  of  ^20  for  every  thousand  copies.  After  1756 
he  printed  Latin,  English,  and  Italian  classics  ;  the  most 
elegant    specimen    being    his    Horace,    1762. 

The  illustration  of  books  by  engraved  plates  was  in  the 
first  half  of  the  century  almost  entirely  done  by  foreigners,  but 
an  English  school  was  arising,  which  attained  perfection  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  and  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Wood  engraving  also,  which,  with  the  exception  of 
blocks  for  head  and  tailpieces,  had  become  almost  a  lost  art, 
was  revived  by  Bewick,  to  become  later  one  of  the  chief 
adornments  of  the    Book. 

Before  17 16  English  printers  obtained  their  best  founts  of 
type  from  Holland,  but  the  establishment  of  the  Caslon 
foundry  rendered  them  independent.  William  Caslon,  the  first 
great  English  type-founder,  died  1766,  but  the  foundry  still 
exists,  pre-eminent  in  the  beauty  of  its  characters.  We 
must  also  mention  the  Foulis  Press  of  Glasgow,  celebrated  for 
its  beautiful  editions  of  classical  works.  The  impetus  given 
to  fine    printing   by  these    houses  rapidly  spread   itself,   and  laid 


Bartoi.o/./.i.  219 

the    foundation    of   the    perfection    which    English    book-making 
reached. 

As    mentioned    before,    foreigners    illustrated    many    English 
books  in  the  early  part  of  the  century.     Gravelot  designed  a  set 
of  plates   to   Shakespeare    in   i2mo,    1740,  and  another  in   quarto, 
1744,  besides  numerous  frontispieces  and  other  plates  in  all  kinds 
of    books.     Among  other    foreigners  who  engraved  for  English 
publishers    were    Grignion,    Kip,   Van    der    Gucht,    Houbraken, 
and    Bartolozzi.      Bartolozzi,   who   was   very   prolific    in  the    pro- 
duction of  engraved   plates,   may   perhaps  be  called   the  founder 
of    that   great    English    school  of   engraving    which   arose    with 
the    establishment    of    the    Royal    Academy   in    1769,  and    the 
encouragement    given    by    Alderman     Boydell.      A   biographical 
and  descriptive  account   of  the   life   and  works  of  Bartolozzi  will 
be     found    in    the    splendid    work   by    Mr.   Andrew  W.     Tuer. 
Houbraken  and  Vertue  engraved   a  set  of  fine  portraits  in  folio 
for   Rapin's  History    of  England,    1736;    William    Hogarth   de- 
signed plates    for    Butler's    Hudibras,    1 744  ;    and    among    other 
curiosities    of     English     engraving     before    1750    were     Sturt's 
edition    of   the    Common    Prayer,    entirely    engraved  on    copper 
plates,    1 71 7,    and    an  edition    of    Horace    entirely   engraved    by 
Pine,    1733.     That  the   taste  for  illustrated  books  soon  grew  to 
be    great    is    evidenced    by    the    publication    of   such    expensive 
works    as    Boydell's    edition    of    Shakespeare,    in    nine    volumes 
folio,    commenced   in    1791,   and   adorned  with   a   hundred   plates 
from  pictures   specially  commissioned    by  the  spirited  publisher  ; 
Claude's    Liber    Veritatis,    with     three    hundred    engravings   by 
Richard  Earlom,    1777,   Sir  Robert  Strange's  engravings  of  fifty 
historical  prints  about   1750,  collections  of  views  in  Great  Britain, 
by  Kip,    Buck,   and    Boydell  ;   Holbein's    Collection   of  Portraits, 
1792,   a  hundred  and   fifty  plates    to    Shakespeare    engraved   by- 


220 


The  Book. 


S.  and  E.  Harding  1793,  all  of  which  cost  large  sums  to  produce, 
and  greatly  contributed  to  the  elevation  of  public  taste.  Among 
the  artists  of  the  latter  half  of  the  century  who  contributed  to 
the  decoration  of  the  Book  are  Thomas  Stothard  and  William 
Blake,  whose  very  beautiful  designs,  extending  into  the  next 
century,  excelled  those  of  all  their  contemporaries  in  their  grace 
and    sj^irit  ;     Robert    Smirke,     best    known    by    his    plates    for 


Fig.  127. — Illustration  by  Stothard,  from  one  of  the  Keepsakes. 


Shakespeare,  Don  Quixote,  and  Gil  Bias  ;  Burney  and  Richard 
Westall,  born  at  Hertford,  1765,  well  known  for  his  illustra- 
tions to  Boydell's  Milton,  and  his  Shakespeare  Gallery,  Humés 
History  of  England,  and  the  Poems  of  Crabbe,  Moore,  Scott, 
and  Cowper.  Thomas  Stothard  made  more  than  five  thousand 
designs.  His  best  illustrations  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Town    and    Country   Magazine,    Bell's    British   Poets,    N^ovelists 


Blake. 


221 


Magazine,  Boydell's  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Spencer,  Don  Quixote, 
Walton's  Coiiiplcat  Angler,  Rogers's  Italy,  Robinson  Crusoe, 
1790,  and  Pilgrim's  Prog7'ess,  1794.  William  Blake  attracted 
great  attention  by  his  eccentricity  and  artistic  talents.  Among 
the  principal  works  which  he  illustrated  are  Young's  Night 
Thoughts,  1779,  with  forty-three  full  page  illustrations,  and 
illustrations    to    Blair's    Grave,     1808;    illustrations    to    Milton's 


Fig.  12S. — Illustration  by  Blake,  from  Blair's  Grave. 


Comus,  1804;  Mary  WoLstonecraft's  Original  Stories,  1791. 
His  designs  are  full  of  feeling  and  delicacy,  and  are  looked 
upon  with  wonder.  It  may  be  said,  generally,  that  the 
English  books  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  of  a  more 
solid  character  than  the  French,  although  English  art,  espe- 
cially in  the  direction  of  the  Book,  owes  much  to  French 
initiation.  It  is  curious  to  read  now  the  opinion  of  a  contem- 
porary  French    engraver    on    English     art.       Choffard,     in    the 


222  The  Book. 

preface  to  Basan's  Dictionnaire,  1767,  wrote:  "They"  (the 
English),  "  having  been  supported  by  some  foreign  talent,  are 
trying  to  create  talent  among  themselves  ;  but  they  are  unable 
to  kindle  the  flame  of  genius  that  vivifies  all  art  in  France." 

Engraving  by  leaving  the  figure  in  relief,  from  which 
printing  could  be  clone  with  the  letterpress,  had,  we  may 
think,  nearly  disappeared  in  the  midst  of  the  continued  invasion 
of  the  burin  and  etching.  It  only  appeared  from  time  to 
time  in  head  and  tailpieces,  merely  as  typographical  acces- 
sories,  and  lost   in  other   directions.        There  were  always  wood 


Fig.  129. — Tailpiece  engraved  on  wood  by  Jean  Baptiste  Papillon  (before  1766). 

•engravers,  not  very  clever,  capable  only  of  working  simple 
lines  without  charm.  One  of  them  resolved  to  resuscitate  the 
•art,  and  made  various  attempts  about  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV.  and  beginning  of  that  of  Louis  XV.  He  was 
nanied  Jean  Papillon,  and  was  born  at  St.  Quentin  in  i66r. 
His  experiments  did  not  go  beyond  a  book  of  prayers,  with 
thirty-six  figures  in  relief  after  Sébastien  Leclerc.  His  son, 
Jean  Baptiste,  succeeded  him,  and  continued  to  engrave  without 
ceasing  subjects  of  ornament,  letters,  and  often  tailpieces,  of 
a   good    style   upon    the    whol.e,    and    taking    an    excellent    place 


JEA^'  Baptiste  Papii.i.ox.  223 

in  an  elaborate  book.  Unfortunately,  grace  had  fled  ;  the 
processes  which  the  artists  had  taught  each  other  were  lost  ; 
and  the  Papillons  reconstituted,  we  may  say,  a  vanished  art. 
jean  Baptiste  also  published  in  1766  a  theoretical  treatise  on 
wood  engraving,  abounding  in  historical  errors,  but  in  which 
something  instructive  may  be  found  if  taken  with  discretion. 
He  says  in  his  preface  :  "  Now  that  excellent  work  is  done 
on  copper,  wood  engraving  is  neglected,  and  the  art  lost  of 
designing  and  cutting  the  shadings  of  the  pencil  on  the  wood 
block  ;  most  of  those  who  work  in  it  have  neither  design  nor 
taste,  and  only  follow  their  own  ideas  ;  it  is  not  astonishing  that 
only  very  inferior  pieces  come  from  their  hands,  to  say  nothing 
stronger  ;  the  profound  ignorance  of  nearly  all  who  meddle  with 
it  contrives  more  and  more  to  destroy  the  beauties  of  this  art 
in  which  many  people  find  neither  pleasure  nor  grace.  To 
obviate  all  this,  if  it  be  possible  to  me,  I  have  undertaken  to 
give  my  precepts  and  observations  to  those  who  wish  to  apply 
themselves  to  my  engraving." 

It  was  probably  these  essays  of  Papillon  that  provoked 
curious  experiments  on  the  part  of  other  wood  engravers. 
Duplat,  at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  proposed  to  prepare 
a  relief  on  stone,  and  as  this  would  be  broken  under  pressure, 
he  invented  a  mould  ;  that  is  to  say,  he  took  a  leaden  matrix 
from  the  stone  cutting,  and  ran  a  resistant  metal  into  this 
mould,  thus  obtaining  a  relief  similar  to  the  stone.  Renouard, 
the  publisher,  made  the  trials  ;  and  the  younger  Moreau  made 
the  designs.  Fancy  Moreau  making  experiments  in  iSri! 
One  of  the  plates  of  Lafontaine's  Fables,  published  by 
Renouard  in   18 12,   in  two  volumes,    i2mo,  is  here  reproduced. 

It  appears,  however,  that  the  publisher  was  thwarted  by 
bad  printing.      The  printers  of  Didot  or   Mame,   much  as    they 


224  The  Book. 

devoted  all  their  care  to  it,  did  not  yet  know  perfect  work- 
manship ;  they  put  the  most  intense  blacks  into  tine  sheets. 
The  great  publishers  trusted  that  better  days  would  leave  to 
more  clever   men  the  task  of  perfecting  the  invention. 

Wood  engraving,  as  stated,  owes  its  revival  and  almost 
perfection  in  England  to  Thomas  Bewick,  who  published  his 
first  work  in  1770,  his  General  History  of  Qîiadrupeds  1790, 
and  his  Birds  1797.  In  these  works  he  not  only  depicted  his 
subjects  with  the  most  scrupulous  fidelity,  but  in  the  tailpieces 
of  the  several  chapters  he  drew  the  most  quaint,  humorous,  and 


Fig.  130. — Experiment  in  engraving  in  relief  by  Moreau  le  Jeune   for 
Renouard's  edition  of  Lafontaine's  Fables. 


faithful  representations  of  country  life.  From  the  Fables,  pub- 
lished in  1 818,  we  reproduce  an  illustration,  also  a  specimen  from 
the  second  volume  of  the  British  Birds.  He,  with  his  brother, 
John  Bewick,  and  their  pupils,  among  whom  was  Luke  Clennell, 
had  an  influence  upon  English  art  and  the  decoration  of  the 
Book  in  England  which  exists  to  our  day.  Not  alone  with  us, 
for  he  may  be  said  to  have  repaid  the  debt  which  we  owed  to 
France  for  her  illustrated  books  of  the  eighteenth  century  by 
stimulating  the  art  of  wood  engraving,  which  was  practised  by 
Tony  Johannot  and  the  other  illustrators  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 


Thomas  Bewick.  225 

To  return  to  the  eighteenth  century,  with  which  this  chapter 
is  specially  occupied,  we  have  said  that  the  Royal  Printing 
House,  after  various  fortunes,  still  existed;  and  in  1788  it 
worked,  for  better  or  for  worse,  at  the   Louvre.      According   to 


Fig.  I J 


-Portrait  of  Thomas  Bewick. 


the    budget    of   that  year,   it    cost    the    King    90,000     livres,    of 
which  the  director  had    1,400. 

There  were,  on  the  other  hand,  a  certain  number  of  official 
printing  offices,  that  of  war,  for  e.xample,  which  was  devoted 
entirely    to    the    work    of    the     Ministry.       It    was     situated    at 

15 


226 


The  Book. 


Versailles,  and  was  created  in  176S.  It  is  told  of  Louis  XV. 
that,  being  one  day  in  this  workshop,  he  found  a  pair  of 
spectacles,  left  as  if  in  inadvertence  on  a  printed  sheet.  As 
his  sight  was  weakening,  he  took  the  spectacles  and  looked 
through  them.  The  sheet  was  a  hyperbolical  eulogium  com- 
posed, as  if  at  random,  by  the  director  Bertier,  in  honour 
of  the  King.  Louis  XV.,  having  read  the  dithyramb,  replaced 
the  spectacles,  and  quietly  said,  "  They  are  too  strong  ;  they 
make  objects  too  large." 


Fig.  132. — Wood  block  by  Bewick,  from  his  Fables,  iSlS.     The  fox  and  the  goat. 


Who  would  believe  that  at  the  end  of  the  century  of 
Voltaire  and  Rousseau  a  craftsman  would  be  found  desirous  of 
leading  back  the  typographical  art  to  its  cradle,  and  of  making 
xylographs  again,  under  the  name  of  polytypes  ?  A  German 
was  the  genius  who  conceived  the  plan.  He  obtained  an 
order  of  council  for  the  establishment  of  his  presses  in  1785, 
but  the  same  council  suppressed  them  November  ist,  1787. 
His  process  was  to  substitute  for  movable  characters  a  plate 
of  fixed  letters,  and  probably  engraved. 


Thomas  Beivick.  227 

Another  eccentricity  of  typography  at  the  end  of  the  century 
was  the  introduction  of  "logography"  by  John  Walter,  by  which 
system  he  issued  Gabriel  the  Outcast.  It  consisted  in  casting 
whole  the  words  in  most  common  use,  in  place  of  separate 
letters.  The  system  had  soon  to  be  abandoned,  but  he  after- 
wards started  the  Daily  Universal  Register,  which  subse- 
quently assumed  the  name  of  llie  Times  (January  ist,  1785), 
and  which  his  son  John,  born   2818,  made  what  it  is  now. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  a  printing  establishment 
in    France    for   each    of  the    constituted   bodies  ;    the    King,    the 


Fig.  133. — Wood  block  from  Bewick's  Brilish  Birds.     Tlie  common  ducli. 

Queen,  the  princes,  each  had  their  own.  The  royal  lottery 
occupied  a  special  printing  house. 

The  young  inmates  of  the  blind  asylum  worked  under  the 
direction  of  M.  Clousier,  royal  printer.  Louis  XVI.  authorised 
the  celebrated  Haiiy,  their  master,  to  allow  them  to  print  ;  and 
in  1786  they  composed  an  essay  on  the  education  of  the  blind. 
Pierre  François  Didot  was  in  1785  printer  to  the  Prince, 
afterwards  Louis  XVIII.  He  published  the  Avetitures  de 
Téléviaqne,  in  two  quarto  volumes,  from  this  special  printing 
office. 

The  English  colonies  in  North  America  early  established 
printing   there,    their    first    book,     the    Book  of  Psalms,    known 


228  The  Book. 

as  the  Bay  Psalm  Book,  being  dated  1640.  By  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century  literature  held  a  strong  position  in  the 
colonies,  the  greater  part  of  it  being,  as  might  be  expected, 
English  ;  but  the  revolution  and  subsequent  establishment  of 
the  United  States  created  a  national  American  literature,  which 


Fig.  134. — Benjamin  Franklin,  by  C.  N.  Cochin. 

has  flourished  to  this  day.  Among  the  printers  of  North  America 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  most  famous  was  Benjamin 
Franklin,  born  January  17th,  1706,  but  he  is  still  more 
celebrated  as  a  philosopher  and  statesman.  He  established  a 
printing  office  at  Philadelphia  1728,  and  as  a  curiosity  we  may 
mention    his  Foor  Richard's  Ahiianack,  which    he  conducted  for 


Benjamix  Fra  xki.in. 


229 


twenty-five  years.  Interesting  for  printers  is  also  his  epitaph 
which  he  composed  himself:  "The  body  of  Benjamin  Franklin, 
Printer  (like  the  cover  of  an  old  book,  its  contents  worn  out, 
and  stript  of  its  lettering  and  gilding),  lies  here,  food  for  worms. 
Yet  the  work  itself  shall  not  be  lost,  for  it  will,  as  he  believed, 
appear  once  more  in  a  new  and  more  beautiful  edition,  corrected 
and  amended  by  its  Author." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  BOOK  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

The  Didots  and  their  improvements — The  folio  Racine — The  school  of  Didot — Fine 
publications  in  England  and  Germany — Literature  and  art  of  the  Restoration — 
Romanticism — Wood  engraving — Bewick's  pupils,  Clennell,  etc. — The  illustra- 
tors of  romances — The  generation  of  1840 — The  Book  in  our  days  in  Europe 
and  America. 

OLITICAL  imitator^  had  not  been  found  for 
the  French  Revolution  in  all  the  neighbour- 
ing countries  of  Europe,  but  its  Greco- 
Roman  art  established  itself,  and  by  degrees 
was  introduced  into  the  studios  of  painters 
and  the  printing  offices.  Prud'hon,  Gérard,  Girodet,  and  later 
Desenne,  without  counting  the  younger  Moreau  and  his 
contemporaries  of  the  older  regime,  rallied  to  the  new  study, 
forming  a  school  of  illustrators  and  vignettists  with  which  the 
publishers  could  resolutely  advance.  England  followed  suit  with 
Fla.xman,  West,  Fuseli,  Barry,  and  a  crowd  of  others.  Among 
the  publishers  the  powerful  family  of  the  Didots  took  first 
rank,  and  its  members,  at  once  type-founders,  printers,  book- 
sellers, and  savants  of  the  first  order,  were  the  best  fitted  to 
direct  an  artistic  and  literary  movement.  When  Napoleon 
crowned  himself  Emperor  of  the  French,  the  elders  of  the 
family  had  already  brought  about  a  number  of  perfections  and 
discoveries    in    their    profession    by    which   their    workshops    had 


The  Didot  Family.  231 

profited.  François  Ambroise,  who  died  in  the  year  of  the 
Empire,  had  given  an  exact  proportion  to  types,  a  free  and 
elegant  turn,  but  perhaps  too  regular  and  precise  to  be  agree- 
able. He  had  already  invented  a  press  called  the  presse  à 
nil  coup,  in  which  the  impression  was  taken  by  a  single  pull 
instead  of  being  produced  by  a  series  of  successive  strikings. 
His  brother,  Pierre  François,  spoken  of  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  was  a  type-founder  and  paper-maker  at  Essones,  and 
counted  among  his  official  titles  "  printer  to  the  Comte  de 
Provence,"  as  F"rançois  Ambroise  was  to  the  Comte  d'Artois. 

Of  these  two  branches  equally  faithful  to  typography,  Pierre 
Didot,  son  of  François  Ambroise,  became  the  head  on  the 
death  of  his  father.  Born  in  1 760,  he  had  studied  his  art  with 
passion,  and  had  deserved  the  installation  of  his  workshops  in 
the  Louvre,  where  he  published  the  celebrated  collection  known 
as  the  Louvre  editions,  the  chef-d œuvre  of  which  was  the 
works  of  Racine.  The  splendid  execution  of  this  book,  in  three 
large  folio  volumes,  was  a  true  typographical  revolution.  Never 
in  any  country  had  scrupulous  perfection  of  detail  been  joined 
to  so  masterly  a  knowledge  of  arrangement  and  form  of  charac- 
ters. The  great  artists  of  the  Davidian  school  were  anxious 
of  the  honour  of  seeing  their  drawings  reproduced  as  illustra- 
tions, and  those  named  above  designed  the  fifty-seven  plates 
with  which  the  edition  was  adorned.  Pierre  Didot  displayed  a 
great  affectation  in  only  printing  two  hundred  and  fifty  copies 
of  his  irreproachable  and  marvellous  work,  of  which  a  hundred 
were  taken  with  proofs  before  letters.  Published  by  subscription, 
the  ordinary  edition  was  issued  at  1,200  francs,  and  with 
proofs   1,800  francs. 

To    these    superb    works    Firmin    Didot,    his    brother,   added 
ingenious  discoveries.     Struck  with  certain  difficulties  of  printing 


232  The  Book. 

as  well  as  of  correction,  he  imagined  the  welding  together  of 
the  types  of  a  form,  when  once  obtained  perfectly  correct,  so  as 
to  avoid  the  trouble  of  new  composition.  This  process,  useless 
for  books  of  small  number,  had  a  capital  importance  in  case  of 
reimpressions  of  popular  and  successful  works.  He  named  this 
method  Stereotype  Pi'inting,  and  from  1799  he  published  a 
Racine  in   i8mo  by  this  process. 

This    admirably    directed    house,    we    may    indeed    say    this 
school  of    typography,    formed   with   Renouard,  Claye,    Rignoux, 
and  others,  the  greater  number  of  the  French  publishers  of  the 
middle    of    the    century.      When    the    Czar   Alexander    went    to 
Paris,   he  wished   to   do  honour  to   the   greatest   French    practi- 
tioners   in    the     science    of    printing,     in    the    persons    of     the 
brothers    Pierre    and    Firmin    Didot.      But    these    were    not    the 
only    ones.      The    sons  of    Pierre    François    Didot,     Henri    and 
Pierre    François     Il.^the    latter    specially    applied    himself     to 
paper-making,     under     the      name     of     Didot      Saint     Léger — 
followed    in    the    footsteps    of    their    father    and    uncle.      Pierre 
François     made     at     Essones     an    excellent    paper,     which    he 
brought    to  the  perfection    of    making    it    in   endless  rolls,    such 
as  are  made   to-day  for  rotary  machines.      But  perhaps  the  best 
known  of  the  Didot   family  is   M.    Ambroise   Firmin    Didot,  the 
eldest   son    of   Firmin    Didot,   who  died  at    an   advanced  age  in 
1876.      He   not  only  increased    the    reputation  of  his  house  by 
the  publication  of  several    great   works,   but  also    was    himself  a 
great  collector  of  books.     The  extraordinary  sale   of  his    library 
from    1882    to    1884,    which    brought    nearly    three    millions    of 
francs,  astonishing  the  literary  world,  is  still  in  the   recollection 
of   all    bibliophiles.      He  studied    the  old  languages,   travelled  in 
Greece,    Palestine,  and  Asia   Minor,   enjoyed  a  great    reputation 
as    a    hellenist,    and    was    in     i873    elected    a    member    of    the 


THE    DIDOT  FAMILY. 


Î33 


Académie  des  Inscriptions  et  Belles-Lettres,  all  the  time  devoting 
his  special  attention  to  his  favourite  hobby,  the  history  of 
printing,  to  which  we  owe  his  writings:  Gutenberg  (1863),  Essai 
sîir  [histoire  de  la  gravure  sur  bois  (1863),  Aide  Manucc  et 
V Hellénisme  à  Venise  (1875),  Etude  sur  Jean  Cousin  (1S72),  and 
other  bibliographical  works. 


Fig.  135. — M.  Ambroise  Firmin  Didot. 

It  was  also  at  Essones  where  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre  retired 
about  the  end  of  the  last  century,  and  there  married  the 
daughter  of  Pierre  François  Didot  II.  It  is  a  curious  coinci- 
dence that  the  same  village  contained  at  once  the  man  whose 
works  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  had  so  extraordinary  a 
success  and  the  great  family  of  printers  who  had  given  definitive 


234  The  Book. 

impetus  to  typographical  work.  It  was  in  this  tranquil  circle 
that  the  author  of  Paid  et  Virginie,  at  the  age  of  sixty,  sought 
repose  ;  that  the  publication  of  his  book  was  resolved  upon 
with  all  the  luxury  due  to  its  success,  with  admirable  type  and 
with  plates  by  Prud'hon  and  others.  He  added  to  it  the 
Chaumière  Indienne,  written  in  1 790,  on  the  eve  of  the  Reign 
of  Terror,  which  is  one  of  the  most  delightful  novels  of  the 
time. 

The  homely  and  sweet  writings  of  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre, 
the  heroic  inventions  of  Girodet,  Gérard,  and  Chaudet  in  the 
Greek  or  Roman  style,  the  clever  but  severe  typography  of 
the  Didots — these  are  the  characteristics  of  the  Book  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century.  Under  Louis  XV.  the  nymphs 
carried  panniers  ;  Polyeucte  had  a  wig  and  sword.  It  would 
have  been  unbecoming  not  to  give  Juno  or  Venus  the  head- 
dress adopted  in  paintings  and  vignettes.  At  the  time  which 
now  occupies  us  fashion  in  clothing  influenced  designers  also. 
The  hair  of  goddesses  was  à  la  Titus;  the  waist  was  under 
the  arms  ;  golden  circles  were  on  the  brow.  Simple  mortals 
walked  naked  on  the  roads,  with  plumed  casques  and  splendid 
shields.  There  were  heroes  putting  forth  their  disproportioned 
arms,  others  raising  their  eyes  to  heaven  in  impossible  attitudes. 
Such  were  all  the  vignettes,  from  Girodet  to  the  humblest, 
and    last,    the    most   forgotten. 

It  happens,  by  an  oddity  of  which  the  cause  is  vainly 
sought,  that  this  classic  and  revolutionary  school  of  David 
identifies  itself  so  well  with  the  Napoleonic  epoch,  and  also  with 
the  people  of  the  Restoration,  that  it  seems  expressly  made  for 
them.  At  the  same  time,  under  Louis  XVIII.  and  Charles  X. 
the  Romans  and  Greeks  had  not  the  bold  carriage  of  their 
early  days  ;    they  became   more  citizenized,  and    looked    like  the 


LUKE    Ci.ENNELI.. 


235 


national  guards  of  the  kingdom  of  which  later  an  e.xcessive  use 
was  made. 

A  whole  literature  arose  that  was  to  react  against  the 
Greek  full  of  Gallicisms  ;  but  the  movement,  by  reversing  the 
ancient  state  of  things,  by  wishing  to  replace  antiquity  by  the 
middle  ages,  old  Romans  by  old  French,  completely  changed 
the  physiognomy  of  the  Book.  The  engraved  vignette  and  the 
copperplate    of   the    seventeenth    and    eighteenth    centuries  were 


to  lose  their   supremacy  and   to  give  way  to    etching  and  wood 
engraving,  which  was  also  a  revival  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

After  the  unfortunate  attempts  of  Papillon  in  France,  wood 
engraving  was  resorted  to  in  England  by  Thomas  Bewick, 
who  founded  a  school,  as  we  said,  of  which,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  our  century,  Clennell  and  the  brothers  Thompson 
were  members.  One  of  the  Thompsons  went  to  France 
about     the     middle    of     the     Restoration,    doubtless     with     the 


236  THE    BOOK. 

hope  of  profiting  by  his  art,  and  he  offered  to  the  Print 
Department  of  the  National  Library  the  diploma  of  the  High- 
land Society,  a  large  folio  wood  block,  very  adroit  and  very 
curiously  cut,  after  the  drawing  of  the  celebrated  Benjamin 
West,  and  copied  from  Clennell's  original  block  of  the  same 
subject.  M.  Duchesne,  then  Keeper  of  the  Prints,  speaks  of 
this  last  process  as  of  an  apparition:  "This  print  clearly  shows 
the  long  neglected  and  often  reappearing  art  of  wood  engraving, 
which,  though  it  could  never  equal  copper  engraving,  neverthe- 
less merits  the  attention  of  amateurs  when  a  capable  hand  is 
exercised  upon  it."  It  was,  we  see,  a  curiosity  then,  this  relief 
cutting,  the  revival  of  which  was  to  give  an  enormous 
impulse  to  the  Book  from  the  facilities  of  printing  and  the 
economies  realized  by  the  possibility  of  insertion  in  the  text  of 
periodicals.  In  fact,  metal  printing  necessitated  more  trouble 
for  engravings  than  for  the  bookwork.  With  wood  blocks 
surrounded  by  type  the  ordinary  press  sufficed.  The  Magasin 
Fittoresqîte,  which  was  commenced  in  1833,  and  the  success  of 
which  from  the  first  was  very  great,  was  the  fruit  of  these  new 
combinations.  Before  it  the  Messager  Boiteux  of  Strasburg 
and  other  popular  almanacs  progressed  very  well  with  their 
illustrations  on  wood.  A  kind  of  association  of  engravers,  at 
the  head  of  which  were  Best  and  Andrew,  undertook  the  illus- 
trations of  the  Magasin  Pittoresque.  In  a  few  years  progress 
was  immense,  other  publications  came  into  existence,  and  a 
definitive  return  was  made  to  the  vignette  in  relief.  The 
French  illustrated  paper  preceded  our  Illustrated  London  News 
by  nine   years. 

Lavish  use  was  now  made  of  wood  engraving,  which  had 
thus  been  suddenly  revived  in  the  very  midst  of  the  new 
romantic    effervescence,    amid   a    war  of  books,    which,  in    order 


The  Brothers  Johaxxot. 


■217 


to  please,  had  above  all  to  captivate  the  eye,  reacting  at  once 
against  the  spirit  and  the  art  of  the  Restoration.  Never  before 
had  artists  to  such  an  extent  taken  active  part  in  a  purely 
literary  warfare.  All  the  fantastic  tendencies  of  young  France 
were  embodied  in  the  lame  and  halting  lines  of  the  time  and 
similar  wretched  doggerel.  Doubtless  the  leaders  of  the  school 
did  not  go  quite  so  far,  and  their  reputation  even  suffered 
from  such  theories  ;  but,  as  always  happens  in  such  cases,  the 
disciples  outstripped  their  masters. 

The    brothers  Johannot  were    the  first  to    enter  the    lists,  in 


Fig.  137. — Vignette  by  Devcria  for  the  Fiance  de  la  Tombe. 

the  train  of  the  poets  and  others  of  the  romantic  school,  such 
as  Victor  Hugo,  De  Vigny,  Paul  Lacroix,  George  Sand,  also 
Devéria,  the  most  ruthless  of  illustrators.  The  last-named  had 
designed  vignettes  on  wood,  of  all  others,  for  Baour-Lormian,  that 
is  to  say,  for  the  foe  of  the  new  ideas,  for  the  Ossian  and  the 
Cockney  bard,  who  assumed  an  excess  of  fury  against  every- 
thing in  turn.  The  Légendes,  Ballades,  et  Fabliaux,  illustrated 
by  Devéria  in  1829,  although  a  sort  of  compromise  with  the 
lovesick  swains  of  mediaeval  times,  did  not  escape  the  shafts 
of  ridicule. 

In    the    midst    of   this    movement    the    Book  became  demo- 


238  The  Book. 

^  cratic  ;  it  was  printed  on  sugar-paper  for  reading-rooms  and 
working  girls.  The  generation  of  romancists  diffused  its  paper- 
covered  works,  printing  a  thousand  copies  and  selling  five 
hundred  with  great  difficulty.  Poets  publishing  five  hundred 
were  happy  with  a  sale  of  two  hundred  and  fifty.  Unheard-of 
titles  were  then  needed  to  catch  the  eye,  ridiculous  and  ghastly 
frontispieces  to  tickle  the  fancy  of  the  riffraff.  Paul  Lacroix 
called  himself  the  "  Bibliophile  Jacob,"  and  invented  surprising 
headpieces  and  foolish  designs.  And  then,  as  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  as  in  the  old  times,  certain  mai'ks  became  popular  with 
the  reading  public.  In  the  place  of  the  Doctrinal  s ,  Complai7its, 
and  Disputes,  so  common  in  the  titles  of  those  epochs,  new 
fancies  spring  up  and  have  their  day.  Eccentric  devices 
recommend  romantic  trash,  in  which  the  assassin's  dagger, 
blood,  and  the  horrors  of  the  tomb  have  replaced  the  insipid 
fancies  of  the  fallen  regime.  Petrus  Borel,  the  werewolf,  a  sort 
of  historic  ghoul  prowling  about  the  graveyards  enjoyed  a 
monopoly,  as  it  were,  of  the  ghastly  titles  and  contents  of  this 
charnel-house  literature  ;  it  was  for  his  Chavipavert  [Contes 
Immoraux),  published  in  1833,  that  Gigoux  composed  a  kind 
of  Bluebeard  surrounded  by  female  skeletons,  that  opened  the 
eyes  of  publishers  to  his  value  as  a  vignettist. 

Although  he  threw  himself  soul  and  body  into  the  romantic 
movement,  the  young  artist  did  not  confine  himself  to  the 
subjects  called  "  abracadabrants,"  following  the  neologism  of  the 
time,  any  more  than  the  booksellers  only  published  romances. 
An  attempt  was  made,  by  publishing  them  in  parts,  to  popularise 
still  further  the  old  writers  at  all  harmonising  with  the  current 
taste.  The  publisher  Paulin  thus  issued  the  Gil  Bias  of  Le 
Sage,  with  illustrations  in  the  text  by  the  younger  Gigoux,  of 
which   the  best  was   expected.       The  history  of   this    celebrated 


JEAN   GIGOUX. 


239 


enterprise  has  been  written  by  the  artist  himseh"  in  the  curious 
Causeries  pubHshed  recently  by  him,  fifty  years  after  his  work 
on  Gil  Bias  ;  and  this  interesting  view  of  an  epoch  already  far 
distant  gives  us  in  a  few  words  the  ordinary  getting  up  of 
these  popular  impressions  in  parts. 

It  appears  that  Paulin,  publisher  in  the  Rue  de  Seine,  not 
being  very  well  off,  had  associated  himself  with  a  man  of 
business   named    Dubochet,    who  had    before   made  an  enornious 


Fig.  13S. — Vignette  by  Jean  Gigoiix  for  GU  Bias. 


fortune  with  gas.  The  two  represented  fifteen  thousand  to 
twenty  thousand  francs,  and  they  ordered  a  hundred  drawings 
on  wood  from  the  young  artist.  He  set  to  work  with  pre- 
caution, for  Dubochet  was  hard  to  please  ;  without  knowing 
much  about  the  business,  he  harassed  the  engravers  for  the  least 
faylts.  Gigous:  set  himself  to  give  his  compositions  in  simple 
line,  without  complicated  shadows,  so  as  to  allow  the  wood 
engravers  to  preserve  a  free  outline.  It  resembled  the  process 
of    the     old    artists    of    the    fifteenth    and    sixteenth    centuries 


:^4o  The  Book. 

of  Vostre  and  Holbein  :  true  engraving  in  relief.  The 
success  of  the  first  sheets  was  extraordinary  ;  new  vignettes 
were  ordered  from  Gigoux  ;  in  place  of  a  hundred  they 
wanted  three  hundred,  then  four  hundred  ;  at  the  end  of  the 
work  they  amounted  to  six  hundred  at  least.  Money  filled 
the  chests  of  the  firm,  but  when  the  artist  claimed  a  small 
share  of  the  profit,  they  laughed  in  his  face.  Dubochet 
coolly  said,    "  There   is   no  agreement!' 

Properly  speaking,  it  was  the  first  serious  attempt  at  illus- 
tration by  the  recovered  method  of  wood  engraving  in  relief, 
but  it  was  not  the  only  one.  Curmer,  the  publisher  of  the 
Rue  Richelieu,  prepared  a  Bible  in  1835  amd  several  other 
\-olumes,  among  which  were  the  Paul  et  Virginie  and  the 
Chauniicre  Indienne  by  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre.  He  had  also 
collected  around  him  a  circle  of  artists  which  included  Wattier, 
Deveria,  and  Meissonier,  the  most  perfect  and  correct  of  the 
designers  on  w^ood,  and  whose  dainty  illustrations  of  Les  Contes 
Remois,  by  Le  Comte  de  Chevigné,  are  very  much  coveted 
by  all  bibliophiles.  Meissonier  made  small  designs,  very  sober 
in  style,  and  without  much  contrast  of  light  and  shade,  which 
were  admirably  cut  by  an  engraver  named  Lavoignat,  a  master 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  word.  Curmer  wrote  in  1835  in  the 
preface  to  one  of  his  books,  "  We  hope  that  we  have  raised 
a  monument  to  wood  engraving.  It  is  easy  to  judge  of  the 
resources  presented  by  this  art.  We  were  compelled  to  have 
recourse  to  England  to  accomplish  our  work.  Peace  to 
publishers  with   such  good   intentions  !  " 

Curmer  acknowledges  the  importance  of  English  specialists 
in  this  new  process  for  vignettes,  and  the  well-intentioned 
publishers  were  not  wanting  ;  they  came  from  all  parts.  He 
himself  did  not  stop  half  way  ;  he  continued  his  work  on  a  large 


RAF  F  ET. 


241 


scale  ;  and  Charles  Blanc  was  able  to  say  of  him  later,  as  well  as 
of  Furne,  "He  desired  to  illustrate  books  for  everybody,  as  the 
great  booksellers  of  the  last  century  had  illustrated  their  rare 
editions  for  a  small  number  of  privileged  persons."  But  he 
did  not  always  confine  himself  to  wood  engraving  ;  he  also 
employed  etching  and  lithography.  These,  requiring  separate 
printing,  did  not  make  intercalation  with  the  text  any  easier 
than    engraving   with    the   burin  ;    but    they  served   to   illustrate 


Fig.  139. — Vignette  by  Pauraier  for  the  Cholera  à  Paris. 

periodicals,  the  Charivari  and  U Artiste,  as  well  as  some  books, 
where  they  replaced  the  engraved  plates  of  the  preceding 
century.  At  the  same  time,  the  latter  process  was  not  alto- 
gether neglected;  about  1840  it  was  revived,  and  steel  was  used 
in  place  of  copper,  as  it  resisted  repeated  impressions  better. 
The  publisher  Furne,  while  he  employed  wood  engraving, 
adorned  with  separate  plates  on  steel  his  better  publications. 
For  him   worked    Raffet,   one  of  the   romanticists   enamoured   of 

16 


242 


The  Book. 


the  Napoleonic  era,  which  he  had  popularised,  with  Charlet  and 
Bellangé,  by  the  brush,  wood  engraving,  and  lithography.  Raffet 
had  transferred  upon  wood,  as  a  labour  of  love,  the  three  hundred 
and  fifty-one  vignettes  of  the  Histoire  de  Napoleon,  by  De 
Norvins,  which  would  to-day  suffice  for  the  glory  and  reputation 
of  many  artists.  In  fact,  the  analytical  and  inductive  spirit  of 
the  artist  led  him  to  leave  nothing  to  the  chances  of  inspiration 
and  ordinary  tricks  of  illustration.      He  laboriously  reconstituted, 


Fig.  140. — Vignette  by  Gavarni  for  Paris  Mane. 


fragment  by  fragment,  the  physiognomy  of  the  "old  army;" 
and  imbued  with  that  perfect  science  of  detail,  he  allowed  his 
pencil  full  play  in  bold  and  luminous  inventions,  in  which,  with 
their  peculiar  bearing,  the  heroes  of  other  days,  the  soldiers  of 
the  Rhine  and  Italy,  of  Austerlitz  and  Waterloo,  live  again 
before  us. 

A  truly  lively  period  was  that  of  1S40.  By  the  side  of  those 
great  artists  of  whom  we  have  spoken,  and  who  will  be  more 
admired   some   day,    there   were   the  fantastic   designers   T ravies, 


Gustave  Doré. 


243 


and  Daumier,  who  adorned  the  illustrated  journals  with  innu- 
merable sketches,  and  also  Grandville  and  Gavarni,  one  carica- 
turing animals  in  a  celebrated  book,  Les  Animaux  Peints  par 
Eux-Jiiêmes,  which  is  more  than  a  chef-d'œuvre  ;  the  latter 
pitilessly  studying  the  vices  and  faults  of  his  time,  with  the 
precision  of  an  anatomist,  in  Les  Anglais  Peints  par  Eux- 
mêmes  of  Labedolliêre,  in  the  Diable  à  Paris,  without  counting 
many  other  works  which  his  penetrating  imagination  produced. 


Fig.  141. — Balzac  writing  his  Contes  Drolatiques.     Vignette  by  Gustave  Doré. 


Photography  presently  came,  which  was  to  reverse  com- 
pletely the  conditions  of  illustration  of  the  Book  by  the 
numerous  means  of  reproduction  to  which  it  gave  birth.  Wood 
engraving  then  entered  on  a  new  phase,  a  complete  transforma- 
tion of  its  ordinary  conditions,  under  the  influence  of  Gustave 
Doré.  Little  by  little  it  had  been  attempted  to  produce  in  relief 
the  same  effect  which  engraved  plates  only  had  hitherto  done. 
Black,  half-tints,  graduated  tones,  were  tried  where  formerly 
a    simple    line,    bold     and    spirited,    signified    everything.      The 


244 


The  Book. 


house  of  Hachette,  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  was, 
together  with  Lahure,  the  promoter  of  reHef  produced  and 
carried  out  in  this  manner.  The  numerous  periodicals  of  these 
pubHshers  spread  the  taste  far  and  wide.  England,  for  its  pawt, 
entered  on  the  same  road,  followed  by  America  and  Germany. 
At  the  present  day  wood  engravings  have  reached  perfection, 
finesse,  and  delicacy  ;  but  they  are  not,  properly  speaking, 
engravings  on  wood,  but  mostly  mechanical  reproductions. 

We  have  seen  that   French  publishers  were  largely  indebted 


Fig.  142. — Illustration  by  Cruikshank,  from  Tlu-cc  Courses  and  a  Dessert, 

by  Clarke. 

to  English  wood  engravers  for  their  blocks.  Luke  Clennell, 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  Bewick's  pupils,  made  some 
excellent  engravings,  among  them  the  illustrations  to  an 
edition  of  Rogers's  Poems  (18 12),  from  pen-and-ink  drawings 
by  Thomas  Stothard.  It  was  Stothard's  opinion  that  wood 
engraving  best  reproduced  pen-and-ink  drawings.  Other  pupils 
of  Bewick  were  J.  Jackson,  John  Thompson,  who  engraved 
Harvey's  beautiful  illustrations  to  Milton  and  Henderson's  History 
of  Wines,  S.  Williams,  Orrin  Smith,  Robert  Branston,  and 
C.  Nesbit.     Thomas  Rowlandson,  i  756^1827,  was  celebrated  for 


CRUIKSHAXK.  245 

his  illustrations  to  Combe's  Dr.  Syntax's  Three  Tours,  etc.,  but  his 
greatest  ability  is  displayed  in  his  well-known  Caricatures.  The 
most  prolific  and  perhaps  the  most  popular  book-illustrator  of  the 
century  in  England,  was  George  Cruikshank,  who  engraved  most 
of  his  own  designs  on  wood,  steel,  or  with  the  etching  needle  ; 
The  Catalogue  of  the  Works  of  G.  Cruikshank  (1871),  by  Mr.  G. 
W.  Reid,  formerly  Keeper  of  the  Prints  in  the  British  Museum, 
occupies  three  quarto  volumes,  with  313  illustrations.  His  best 
known  works  fetch  large  prices  in  spite  of  many  unpleasing 
mannerisms  and  faulty  draughtsmanship.     The  illustrator  of  Oliver 


Fig.  143. — Wood  engraving  \y  Cler.nell   after  Stothard, 
for  Rogers's  Pof/»s    1S12. 

Ttl'isI,  the  Sketches  by  Boz,  the  Comic  Almanack,  1S35-53  (a  set  of 
which  sold  lately  for  ^30)  ;  of  Pierce  Egan's  Life  in  London  (for 
which  ^34  was  given  lately  in  a  sale-room),  and  other  famous 
books  that  achieved  a  hitherto  unexampled  popularity  in  the 
earliest  years  of  the  Queen's  reign,  delighted,  like  his  artistic 
ancestor  Hogarth,  "  to  paint  a  moral  and  adorn  a  tale."  The 
fearless  directness  and  sturdy  realism  with  which  he  depicted 
romantic  incidents  imparted  a  zest  to  his  vigorous  sketches 
which  has  manifestly  not  declined.  The  designs  of  "  Phiz,"  as 
H.  K.  Browne  called  himself,  largely  contributed  to  the  popu- 
larity of  the  works  of  Charles   Dickens  ;  and  the   mere   mention 


246  The  Book. 

of  Richard  Doyle  and  John  Leech  will  recall  the  palmy  days 
of  Punch,  although  both  of  these  artists  did  excellent  work  in 
book  illustration.  Richard  Doyle's  bird's-eye  views  of  society  and 
the  allegorical  illustrations  of  remarkable  personages  are  well 
known  ;  also  John  Leech's  Pictures  of  Life  and  Character. 
Randolph  Caldecott's  illustrations  to  Washington  Irving's  Old 
Christmas  should  be  mentioned  also,  as  well  as  Sir  John 
Gilbert's  illustrations  to  Shakespeare,  and  Birket  Foster's 
English  Landscapes.  From  the  days  of  the  Bewicks  to  the 
present,  wood  engraving  has  formed  the  most  widely  used 
means  of  illustration  in  England  and  the  United  States.  Its 
adaptability  to  the  printing  machine  renders  it  admirably 
suited  to  the  production  of  books  in  large  numbers  and  at  low 
expense.  Without  it  we  could  not  have  our  Graphic  and 
Illustrated  News,  nor  the  Hoods  of  cheap  but  splendidly 
illustrated  magazines  which  are  appearing  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic.  True,  many  of  these  blocks  are  due  to  the 
"processes"  which  photography  has  made  available,  but  they 
are  nevertheless  the  outcome  of  wood  engraving. 

The  most  prominent  Book  illustrators  in  Germany  in  the 
nineteenth  century  are  Moritz  Retzsch,  Schnorr  von  Carolsfeld, 
Ludwig  Richter,  Adolf  Menzel,  Wilhelm  von  Kaulbach,  Moritz 
von  Schwind,  Friederich  Preller  (renowned  for  his  landscapes 
to  the  Odyssey),  and  Anton  von  Werner,  the  celebrated  painter 
and   illustrator  of  Victor  von  Scheffel's  works. 

Moritz  Retzsch,  born  1779  at  Dresden,  excelled  in  romantic 
subjects  ;  his  best  known  works  are  his  outlines  to  Goethe's 
Faust,  181 2,  twenty-six  etchings.  Later  on  he  undertook  for 
Cotta  the  illustration  of  Schiller's  Works  in  outline  ;  he  also 
began  a  Shakespeare  Gallery  and  produced  several  single  etchings, 
among  which  his   Chessplayer  (1836)  is  the  most  esteemed. 


Ri  en  TER    A  XI)    MEW.F.I.. 


247 


Julius  Schnorr  von  Carolsfeld  was  horn  in  Leipzig  1794 
and  after  several  years'  sojourn  in  Italy  he  published  in  1852 
his  celebrated  Bible  pictures,  Die  Bibcl  in  Bildern,  with  two 
hundred  and  forty  woodcuts,  a  work  which  has  made  his  name 
known  in  every  country.  He  also  illustrated  an  edition  of  the 
Nibehingenlied  for  Cotta. 

Ludwig  Richter  (1803-84),  born  at  Dresden,  received  his  first 
instruction    from     his    father,    who    wanted    to    bring    him    up    as 


Fig.  144. — Illustration  by  Ludwig  Richter,  from  Bechstein's  Mdrchenbiiclt. 

an  engraver  ;  but,  assisted  by  the  bookseller  Arnold,  he  soon 
took  his  own  course,  and  excelled  in  homely  landscapes, 
enlivened  by  human  figures,  with  which  he  illustrated  the  most 
popular  German  works.  His  best  known  works  are  his  illustra- 
tions to  the  Deutsche  Volksbiichcr,  the  popular  stories  of  Musœus 
and  Bechstein,  the  Lords  Prayer,  and  a  number  of  Albums  for 
the  house. 

During    the    time    when    Richter's    illustrations    appeared,    a 


248  The  Book. 

work  of  quite  a  different  l<ind  was  created  under  the  hand  of 
a  young  artist,  which  marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  German 
art.  This  work  was  Kugler's  History  of  Frederick  the  Great, 
with  four  hundred  illustrations  by  Adolf  Menzel,  born  in  Breslau 
18 1 5.  He  also  executed,  some  forty  years  ago,  the  celebrated 
illustrations  to  the  Works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  by  order  of 
King  Frederick  William  IV.  Adolf  Menzel  is  one  of  the  first 
artists  now  living.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  modern 
school  of  Book  illustration  was  initiated  by  him.  He  was 
the  first  to  depart  from  the  conventional  modes  of  illustrating 
history  that  were  in  vogue  during  his  youth,  and  one  perceives 
in  his  illustrations  the  artist  who  is  in  love  with  nature,  life, 
movement,  and  historical  accuracy. 

Wilhelm  von  Kaulbach  {1805-74)  possessed  a  great  power 
of  imagination,  and  combined  with  his  large  and  correct  designs 
the  art  of  clever  colouring.  As  a  book  illustrator  he  is  best 
known  for  his  trenchant  and  satirical  designs  to  Goethe's 
Reineckc  Fuchs. 

In  our  days,  the  great  Paris  publishers  have  returned  to  the 
reproduction  of  the  books  of  the  eighteenth  century,  orna- 
mented with  vignettes  on  copper  ;  many  of  them  purely  and 
simply  imitate  by  photographic  processes  the  pretty  editions  of 
Eisen  and  Moreau,  but  they  cannot  be  compared  with  the  original 
editions.  The  processes  of  illustration  are  now  without  number  : 
wood,  metal,  heliogravure,  phototype,  autotype,  and  others.  And 
if  these  mechanical  means  have  at  present  some  importance, 
they  by  no  means  add  to  the  intrinsic  value  of  wood  engravings 
as  works  of  art,  but  merely  to  the  rapidity  and  economy  of 
their  manufacture.  The  Book  has  nothing  to  do  with  all  these 
inventions  and  innovations,  and  may  well  confine  itself  to  the 
burin  or  the  relief  block. 


Mechaxical  Processes.  249 

But  as  regards  the  Book,  properly  so  called,  it  never  was 
the  object  of  more  excessive  care,  or  of  more  unfortunate 
precipitation.  It  may  be  remarked  that  works  least  destined 
to  live  in  the  libraries,  those  thousands  of  lame  pamphlets  on 
questions  of  small  provincial  erudition  or  the  cap-and-sword 
romances,  are  ordinarily  the  best  and  most  careful'y  printed,  in 
comparison  to  other  more  important  works  composed  in  worn- 
out  type  and  printed  on  rotten  and  inferior  paper.  There 
are  in  reading-rooms  a  good  number  of  pamphlets  that  will  not 
easily  be  found  fifty  years  hence,  and  will  be  worth  their  weight 
in  bank-notes,  even  if  dirty  and  tattered,  on  account  of  their 
intrinsic  value. 


HISTORY  of  the 
Book  would  be 
incomplete  without 
a  brief  account 
of  the  mechanical 
processes  by  which  it  is  produced  ; 
and  we  propose  in  the  present  chapter 
to  deal  with  this  important  part  of 
the    subject,    describing    first    some    of 


the    earlier    methods    used,    and    types   j'^^^ 


produced,    by    the    first    printers,    and  lJï,^7^H,^^ 


uiMyy^ 


The  Early  Type-Fou xdkks.  251 

afterwards    giving    a    short    account    of   the    modern    practice    of 
typography. 

The  first  printers  were  their  own  type-founders.  The  secret 
of  the  invention  was  the  discovery  of  movable  types.  Of 
the  jDreliminary  experiments  of  the  inventor  we  know  nothing. 
If,  as  the  Haarlem  story  alleges,  he  began  by  attempting  to 
cut  letters  in  wood,  or  perhaps  by  separating  the  letters  from 
a  fixed  wooden  block,  he  would  only  convince  himself  of 
the  impossibility  of  printing  a  book  by  means  of  such  types. 
His  next  step  was  probably  to  attempt,  by  some  rude  process, 
to  cast  his  letters  in  sand  or  clay  from  moulds  fashioned 
after  the  manner  of  those  in  use  among  the  trinket-makers  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  Finally,  after  much  fruitless  labour,  he  would 
arrive  at  the  excellent  invention  of  the  first  German  typo- 
graphers, namely,  the  cutting  of  a  punch  of  each  letter  in  relief 
on  hard  copper  or  steel,  sinking  the  punch  into  a  matrix  of 
hard  lead  or  copper,  adjusting  the  matrix  to  one  end  of  the 
cavity  of  a  bipartite  iron  mould,  and  so  casting  his  leaden 
types  therefrom  in  the  same  manner  and  by  the  same  methods 
as  those  by  which  type  continued  to  be  cast  for  four  centuries 
after.  The  shape  of  the  body,  or  "  shank,"  of  the  type  was 
given  by  the  mould  ;  the  "  face,"  or  letter  at  the  end,  was 
given  by  the  impressed  image  of  the  punch  in  the  matrix. 
When  a  fresh  letter  was  required,  a  new  matrix  would  be 
attached,   and    so    on    through    the    alphabet. 

Fig.  145,  from  an  old  Book  of  Trades  by  Jost  Amman, 
represents  the  interior  of  a  German  type-foundry  about 
1568.  The  founder,  seated  before  the  furnace,  is  in  the  act 
of  pouring  his  molten  metal  into  the  mould,  in  the  interior  of 
which  the  matrix  is  fixed.  In  the  basket  beside  him  are  a 
number    of  types  already    cast,    while  on   the  shelf  may  be  seen 


252 


The  Book. 


some  more  moulds,  sieves,  crucibles,  and  other  implements  made 
use  of  in  the  industry. 

The  form  of  character  adopted  by  the  first  printers  inv^ari- 
ably  followed  the  models  of  the  national  scribes.  In  Germany, 
for  the  Bible  and  Service  Books,  the  Gothic  or  Black  letter 
was  used  ;  while  for  the  more  secular  books,  such  as  sframmars, 
law-books,  and  theological  treatises,  a  mixed  letter  called  Bastard 


Fig.  145.  —  Tj'pe-founder  in  the  middle  of  tl)c  sixteenth  century. 
Engraving  by  Jost  Amman. 

— half  Black  letter,  half  Roman — was  employed.  In  Holland 
the  secular  hand  was  the  Black  letter.  In  Italy  the  first 
printers  copied  the  elegant  hand  of  the  scribes  of  that  country, 
and  produced  the  character  afterwards  known  as  Roman.  This 
character  was  perfected  by  Jenson,  the  most  elegant  of  the 
fifteenth  century  Italian  printers  ;  while  in  1500,  Aldus,  imitat- 
ing, it  is  said,  the  handwriting  of  Petrarch,  produced  the 
Italic.      In   France,   the  first  printers  of  the   Sorbonne  made  use 


Early  Tvpe-Fouxders.  253 

of  a  Roman  letter,  which  however  shortly  gave  place  to  a 
Gothic.  In  Flanders  and  Burgundy,  the  first  printers  naturally 
adopted  the  flowing  secretary  hand  of  their  scribes.  In 
this  character  Colard  Mansion  printed  at  Bruges,  and  from 
his  office  William  Caxton  transferred  the  same  character  to 
his   infant    press    at    Westminster    in    1477. 

The  Roman  letter  did  not  appear  in  England  till  151S, 
when  Pynson  used  it.  During  the  early  years  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  when  printers  gave  up  buying  type  from  abroad 
and  attempted  to  cast  it  themselves,  printing  became  very  poor. 
John  Day,  the  English  Plantin,  was  the  first  to  revive  it, 
about  1560.  Many  of  his  founts  are  handsome  ;  and  some  of 
them  remained  in  fashion  for  many  years.  But  although  there 
were  many  printers  in  England  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the 
best  printing  was  executed,  and  the  best  types  were  cast, 
abroad. 

To  mention  only  a  few  famous  names,  the  Aldine  family 
in  Italy,  Claude  Garamond  in  France,  Froben  in  Switzerland, 
and  Plantin  in  Holland,  all  produced  types  which  advanced 
printing  into  a  fine  art,  and  left  for  future  generations  models 
which    are    admired    to    our   own    day. 

One  or  two  interesting  attempts  were  also  made  during  the 
same  century  to  reduce  to  definite  rule  the  form  of  printing 
letter.  Chief  among  these  was  the  celebrated  Cha7npfieury 
of  Geoffroy  Tory,  the  Paris  printer,  who,  while  fantastically 
deriving  the  shape  and  proportion  of  each  letter  from  the 
symmetry  of  the  human  body,  gave  the  Roman  letter  an 
elegance  and  style  which  brought  about  a  revolution  in  French 
typography,  and  led  to  the  abandonment  of  the  old  Gothic  for 
the  new  fashion.  The  brilliant  school  of  French  letter-cutters, 
who  succeeded  Garamond, — the  Estiennes,  under  whose  auspices 


254  The  Book. 

the  Imprimerie  Royale  of  Francis  I.  was  started;  Lebé,  who 
cut  types  for  Plantin's  famous  Polyglot  ;  Sanlecques,  Grandjean, 
Fournier,  and  the  Didots,  were  all  more  or  less  indebted  to 
the    inspiration    of   Tory    for    their    art. 

In   England  the  artistic  perfection   of  the    Roman    type    was 
neglected   until    INIoxon   in    1676    attempted  to  correct  it  by  the 
model  of  the  neat  and  serviceable  letters  designed  by  Christoffel 
Van    Dijck,    and    used    with    success    by   the    celebrated    Dutch 
printers,  the  Elzevirs.     Moxon's  rules,  however,  failed  to  accom- 
plish   their    object,    and    the    Roman  letter  used  in   England   till 
the   commencement   of  the  eighteenth  century   was   of  the   most 
debased  kind,  and  came   for  the  most   part  from  Holland.      The 
English   founders  of  the  day  lacked   the   skill    to    amend   it,  and 
it  was   not   till    Caslon    turned    his    attention    to   letter-cutting   in 
1720    that    English     printing     began    to    recover    the    ground    it 
had    lost.      Caslon's    types,    modelled    on    the    best    form    of  the 
Elzevir  types,  rapidly  became    popular.        Baskerville    attempted 
to  refine  them,  and  produced  some  beautiful  founts,  which,  with 
the    aid   of    exquisite    presswork   and    highly-glazed  paper,    bade 
fair   to    eclipse  those    of   his   predecessor.     The    English   public, 
however,  grew    tired    of  the    dazzling  types  of  the  Birmingham 
genius,    and    settled  down    once   more    to   the    more    serviceable 
models    of   Caslon.       Baskerville's    types    were     bought    by    the 
French    for   the    great    edition    of    Voltaire    printed    at    Kehl   at 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  centurv. 

About  iSoo,  chiefly  owing  to  the  influence  of  the  Italian 
typographer  Bodoni,  the  old-style  Roman  was  abandoned  for  a 
more  modern  style,  which  still  remains  the  common  printing 
letter  of  Europe,  although  in  our  own  country  the  Caslon  old- 
styles  have  been  successfully  revived  and  largely  used  in 
artistic   work. 


TVPE-FOL.XDIXG — TJIE    FOV.XT.  255 

During  the  four  centuries,  as  we  have  said,  the  method  of 
type-casting  has  remained  practically  the  same  as  that  invented 
by  Gutenberg  before  1454.  A  gradual  improvement  has  taken 
place  in  the  materials  used.  Punches  are  now  cut  on  hard 
steel  and  sunk  into  copper  ;  the  mould  is  hard  iron  carefully 
"justified"  and  finished,  and  the  types  themselves  are  cast  in 
an  alloy  of  lead,  tin  and  antimony,  calculated  to  combine 
sharpness  and  toughness,  and  endure  the  severe  strain  of 
modern  machinery. 

At  the  present  time  there  are  about  twenty  different  sizes 
or  bodies  of  type,  ranging  from  an  inch  to  I  of  an  inch.  A 
fount  of  type  consists  of  capitals,  "  lower  case  "  or  small  letters, 
small  capitals,  points,  figures,  reference  marks,  signs,  spaces, 
and  italic.  The  quantities  of  each  letter  are  regulated  according 
to  a  "  bill  "  calculated  on  the  ordinary  requirements  of  the 
language.  In  the  English  "bill,"  containing,  say,  3,000  "m's," 
there  would  be  g.ooo  "a,"  14,000  "  e,"  Soo  "  k,"  700  capital 
"A,"  300  notes  of  interrogation,  and  so  on,  each  sort  in  fixed 
proportion. 

The  types  are  distributed  into  cases,  partitioned  into  small 
boxes,  one  for  each  sort.  From  these  they  are  picked  up  one 
by  one  by  the  compositor  and  set  in  a  tray-like  iron  frame 
called  a  composing-stick,  in  words  and  lines,  according  to  the 
"copy"  to  be  printed.  As  the  stick  is  filled,  the  matter  is 
carefully  lifted  out  on  to  galleys,  on  which  the  pages  are 
made  up.  These  pages  of  type  are  then  imposed,  usually  eight 
or  sixteen  at  a  time,  and  wedged  fast  in  an  iron  frame  or 
chase,  represented  by  the  black  lines  in  the  accompanying 
diagram.  The  imposition  follows  fixed  rules,  the  pages  being  so 
placed  that  when  the  sheet  is  printed  and  folded  they  shall- 
follow  one  another  consecutively  in   their  proper  order. 


256 


The  Book. 


The.  following  would    be    the   form   of   imposition  of  a   four- 
leaf  tf act  printed  on  both  sides,   making  eight  pages. 


•SJ3 

-■\u\\     sp[qd 

-puaj-Xauoui 

-  lU  B  d      0 .«  ) 

JO     ;Bqi      O) 

sssooad    A\au 

X]3AISU[0X9 

siq  JO  sm:3iu 

paiiiuii     SEA\ 

Xq    paqsH 

aDiyo      Jiaqi 

-  q  n  d     p  B  q 

)  11  q     :  n  0 1!  q 

Saaquainf) 

-  u  3  p  X  a  iv; 

2jnoqsBJiç5 

JO          3  UiBU 

JE    souapisaa 

sq;       idaDxa 
I- 

siq  SuuuQ 

1 

s 

trade    of  a 

the      defects 

goldsmith, 

of  the  blocks 

other    histo- 

for such  par- 

rians say  of  a 

ticular     pur- 

banker ;  and 

pose,     con- 

they  formed 

ceived     the 

together    an 

idea  of  com- 

association, 

posing  them 

to  which  the 

with       sepa- 

one    contri- 
1 

rate     letters. 

•S3idoD     pa 

'sn  01   u.wop 

-)uudai|)i[3s 

3UJ00      )OU 

0Ï       XiJfDinb 

3.\Eq      S31UBU 

'3sn       juanb 

3=0qA\      'Si3q 

-3JJ   Jiaqi  JO 

-U]3U1  IBa3A3S 

30U3nb3SUO0 

Xq    uo     jniB[ 

ut    'psdcq 

p3SB3aDUI 

3  q      q  0  1  q  .\v 

UOIIBIOOSSE 

JO      'siooqos 

JisqX        'S3S 

3qi    aoj     U31 

-U3dx3     ]sjy 

The  general 

buted  his  in- 

belief is  that 

dustry,       a 

Fust,     initi- 

probable 

ated  by  him 

source     of 

into   the    se- 

future  bene- 

crets   of   the 

lits,  and  the 

art  which  he 

other  a   cer- 

had just   in- 

tain    sum, 

vented,    and 

appointed  to 

struck     with 

cover     the 

It  will  be  seen  that  these  sheets  placed  back  to  back  and 
folded  once  across  the  breadth  and  once  perpendicularly  down 
the  middle,  will  give  the  eight  pages  in  consecutive  order,  and 
be  a  regular  "  quarto.  " 

The  first  printers  usually  printed  only  one  page  at  a  time. 

The  imposed  form  is  now.  ready  for  the  press,  on  to  which 
the  chase  is  lifted.  The  pressman  first  takes  a  proof  or  rough 
impression  of  the  type,  which  is  carefully  read  and  all  corrections 
marked.  These  corrections  are  made  in  the  type,  and  the  form 
is  then  ready  for  printing. 

The  printing  press  dates  back  to  the  invention  of  printing. 
The  first  used  was  probably  a  modification  of  the  old  domestic 
press  in  common  use  among  the  people  for  a  variety  of 
purposes.      It    was   gradually   adapted    and  strengthened    for  the 


The  Steam  Pkixt/xg  Machlxe.  257 

special  purpose  of  taking  impressions  from  type.  The  woodcut 
overleaf  represents  the  press  of  the  Parisian  printer,  Badius 
Ascensius,  about  1535.  The  wooden  screw  press  continued  to 
be  used  for  three  centuries,  until  Lord  Stanhope,  about  1790, 
produced  an  improved  model,  much  stronger  and  mere 
accurate.  From  that  time  till  the  present  improvements  in  this 
branch  of  the  art  have  been  very  rapid.  The  Stanhope  press 
gave  place  to  the  simpler  and  more  perfect  Columbian  and 
Albion  presses,  while,  early  in  the  century,  mechanical  presses,  or 
printing  machines,  were  introduced  into  newspaper  offices,  and 
these  have  since  developed  into  the  monster  perfecting  machines 
of  the  present  day, — machines  which,  fed  by  an  endless  reel  of 
paper,  will,  at  a  single  revolution,  print  both  sides  of  a  large 
newspaper  at  the  rate  of  twelve  thousand  an  hour  and  upwards, 
and  not  only  print,  but  cut  and  fold  ready  for  delivery.  In 
the  year  18 14  the  first  steam  printing  machine  was  used  in 
England.  It  was  the  invention  of  a  man  named  Friederich 
Kœnig  (born  at  Eisleben,  1774),  who  a  few  years  before  its 
introduction  in  England  had  offered  it  to  Gœschen,  the  cele- 
brated German  publisher,  and  grandfather  of  the  present 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  of  England  : — "  You  are,"  Kœnig 
wrote  to  Goschen,  "  the  only  printer  in  Germany  who  works 
with  ambition  ;  therefore  I  address  myself  to  you.  So  far  as  I 
can  judge,  you  are  the  only  man  in  Germany  who  can  make 
the  most  profitable  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  useful  use 
of  the  invention  which   I   bring  before  you." 

To  return  to  the  press.     The  form  being  laid  on  the  iron  bed, 
the  surface  of  the  type  is  inked  by  means  of  a  roller.     The  paper 
is  then  laid   upon  it,  and  the  bed  passed   under  the  descending 
"  platen  "   of  the   press.      This  platen   is   brought   down   with   an  ■ 
even  pressure  by  means  of  a  lever  or  screw,  pressing  the  paper 

17 


258 


The  Book. 


upon  the  inked  surface  of  the  type.  The  result  is  that  the 
mark  of  the  type  is  transferred  to  the  paper,  and  we  have  a 
printed  impression.  The  recent  mechanical  inventions  in  print- 
ing machinery  all  start  from  this  simjsle  process.  Instead  of  the 
flat  platen,  the  pressure  is  now  usually  produced  by  the  passing 
of  a   cylinder   over    the    face   of    the  type,   while    the    leverage, 


Fig.  146. — Mark  of  Jodocus  Badius  of  Asch.     Engraving  (i  h\  croix  de  Lorraitic. 

instead  of  being  applied  manually,  is  given  by  steam-power.  In 
the  press  of  Ascensius,  as  will  be  seen,  the  pressman  makes 
use  of  balls  instead  of  rollers  to  ink  the  type.  These  remained 
in  use  for  presswork  till  comparatively  recently. 

With    regard   to  paper,  it  is    unnecessary    to    point    out  that 
its    manufacture     was    understood    long     before     the     invention 


PA/'ER-M.IK.'XG. 


259 


of  typography  or  even  block  printing.  We  have  here  a 
block  representing  the  paper-maker  at  work  in  the  sixteenth 
century. 

The  process  of  making  paper  from  rags  by  hand  was  briefly 
as  follows. 

The  rags,  having  been  thoroughly  cleansed,  were  put  into 
vats,   where  they   were   worked    up    under  a    beating  press   until 


Fig.  147.— Workman  engaged  on  the  vat  with  the  wire  frame. 
Engraving  by  Jost  Amman. 

they  became  pulp.  This  pulp  was  thrown  into  hot  water  and 
stirred  until  a  uniform  mixture  was  produced.  Then  a  mould 
of  fine  wire  cloth,  fixed  upon  a  wooden  frame,  and  having  a 
"deckle"  to  determine  the  size  of  the  sheet,  was  taken;  in  the 
middle  of  this  frame  was  disposed,  also  in  brass  wire,  a  factory 
mark,  intended  to  appear  in  white  in  the  sheet  of  paper,  and 
called  the  "  watermark."  This  mould  was  dipped  into  the 
vat  of  pulp  and  drawn   out  again.      After  gendy  shaking  it   to 


26o  The  Book. 

and  fro  in  a  horizontal  position,  the  fibres  of  the  pulp  became 
so  connected  as  to  form  one  uniform  fabric  ;  and  the  water 
escaped  through  the  wires.  The  deckle  was  then  removed 
from  the  mould,  and  the  sheet  of  paper  turned  off  upon  a  felt, 
in  a  pile  with  many  others,  a  felt  intervening  between  each 
sheet,  and  the  whole  subjected  to  great  pressure,  in  order  to 
absorb  the  superfluous  water.  After  being  dried  and  pressed 
without  the  felts,  the  sheets  were  dipped  into  a  tub  of  size  and 
again  pressed  to  remove  surplus  size.  This  primitive  method 
of  paper-making  is  represented  in  fig.  147,  and  the  same  prin- 
ciple is  still  in  use  for  the  production  of  hand-made  paper. 
Machinery  has  effected  many  improvements  and  economies  in 
the  production  of  laid  paper. 

China  and  Japan  have  their  special  paper  manufacture.  In 
Japan  the  material  employed  is  the  bark  of  the  Japanese 
mulberry  tree  {Alorus  papyrifera  saliva). 

According  to  their  fineness,  size  and  weight,  pajDers  have 
received  different  names,  proceeding  from  the  watermark. 

Fust  at  Mayence  used  paper  marked  with  a  bull's  head. 
Jenson  at  Venice  used  a  balance,  of  which  the  form  varied. 
This  latter  came  from  a  mill  which  furnished  Vicenza,  Perugia, 
and  Rome.     Jenson  used,  besides  a  crown,  a  cardinal's  hat. 

The  bull's  head  underweat  transformations;  it  had  stars  and 
roses,  and  was  special  to  Germany,  and  it  may  sometimes  be 
found  in  Italy. 

The  laid  wires  and  chain-wires  served  to  determine  the 
size  of  a  book.  Looking  at  a  folio  leaf  against  the  light,  the 
laid  wires  will  be  seen  to  be  horizontal,  and  the  chain-wires 
vertical.  In  quarto  they  will  be  reversed,  the  paper  having 
been  folded  in  four  instead  of  in  two.  The  chain-wires  become 
horizontal.      They  return  to  the  vertical  in  octavo,  and  so  on. 


Till'.    Il  \i  t/:r-Makks. 


261 


Such,  then,  is  a  brief  account  of  the  mechanical  processes 
undergone  by  the  printed  bool<  in  course  of  production.  It 
will  be  obvious  that,  for  book  ornament,  the  ordinary  relief 
wood-block  is  at  once  the  simplest  and  most  suitable.  The 
block   will  work   with    the   type  as  part  of   the   same   page,    and 


r^ 


Fig.  14S.  —  Balance  used   by  Jenson,  at  Venice. 

receive  its  impression  at  the  same  time,  in  the  same  press, 
and  by  the  same  process.  The  old  art,  made  f^imous  in  the 
block  books  of  the  old  .xylographers,  has  taken  its  place  as 
handmaid  to  the  newer  art  of  typography  ;  and  its  chief  function 
now  is  to  lend  itself  sympathetically  and  harmoniously  to  the 
adornment  of  the  page  of  which  the  type  is  the  most  important 
feature. 


BOOKBINDING. 

Early  bindings  ;  superiority  of  English  work 
—  Panel-stamps  invented  in  the  Low 
Countries  —  The  binding  of  the  first 
printed  books — French  binding  in  the 
time  of  Louis  XII. — Influence  of  German 
and  Netherlandish  binders  on  the  art 
in  other  countries  —  Italian  bindings  — 
Aldus  —  Maioli  —  Grolier  —  Francis  I.  — 
Henr)-  II.  and  Diana  of  Poitiers  — 
Catherine  de  îviedici  —  Henry  III. — The 
Eves — The  "fanfares" — Louis  XIII. — Le 
Gascon — Florimond    Badier — Louis    XIV. 


^^^ 
S,^' 


MSaag  ■^1-    -aa^iJ^jasf  :i^^  '^i-,^i,^r'w?'^s:i.-i^^^i. 


Early  Examples.  263 

—  Morocco  leathers  —  Cramoisy  —  The  bindings  of  the  time  of  Louis  XIV. — 
The  regency  —  Pasdeloup — The  Deromes  —  Dubuisson  —  Thouvenin  —  Lesné 
—The  nineteenth  century — EngUsh  binders — Roger  Payne— Francis  Bedford 
— Blocking. 


EAVING  the  book  itself,  we  must  now- 
direct  the  reader's  attention  to  the  means 
adopted  to  protect  it  from  injury;  in  other 
words,  to  the  art  of  binding  Originally 
the  binder  was  simply  a  workman  whose 
business  it  was  to  arrange  in  proper  order 
the  quires  or  gatherings  of  which  a  manuscript  was  com- 
posed, sew  them  on  to  thongs  of  skin  or  bands  of  parchment, 
and  by  means  of  these  fix  the  volume  to  the  boards  of  oak, 
or  other  wood,  of  which  the  sides  were  made,  and  finally 
to  cover  these  and  the  back  with  deerskin,  pigskin,  or  leather. 
As  luxury  increased,  the  wooden  boards  which  protected  the 
book  were  either  covered  with  some  precious  silken  stuff,  or 
encrusted  with  plates  of  gold  or  silver,  adorned  with  cloisonné 
enamels  and  precious  stones  or  plaques  of  ivory,  according  to 
the  taste  of  the  owner.  Generally  these  precious  bindings  were 
reserved  for  books  of  the  Gospels  (as  on  that  formerly  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Noyon,  now  in  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre,  Fig.  150), 
Psalters,  and  Bibles,  which  alone  were  deemed  worthy  of  such 
magnificent  clothing.  Other  books  were  covered  with  leather, 
either  left  plain  or  simply  adorned  with  ruled  lines.  The  next 
step  was  to  decorate  the  covers  with  interlaced  and  other 
patterns,  produced  by  means  of  a  style.  Stamps  were  probably 
not  introduced  until  the  eleventh  century,  but  by  the  middle 
of  the  twelfth  the  art  of  adorning  the  covers  of  books  by 
stamping,  generally  called  blind  tooling,  had,  especially  in 
England,  attained  a  very  high  degree  of  perfection.      For  some 


204 


The  Book. 


reason,  probably  owing  to  the  introduction  of  plates  of  copper 
gilt,  and  of  the  champlevé  (much  less  expensive  than  the 
cloisonné)  process  of  enamelling,  the  art  of  ornamental  leather 
binding  declined  in  this  country.  An  example  of  a  book- 
cover  thus  decorated,  representing  Merlin,  is  given  on  p.  2  66> 
In  France,  Germany,  and  the  Netherlands  it  developed  more 
slowly,  but  continued  to  progress  during  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth   centuries. 


Fig.  149.  —Bookbinder's  sliop  in  the  sixteenth  century.     Engraving  by  .lost  Amman. 

The  invention  of  printing  led  to  a  great  increase  in  the 
number  of  books  produced,  and  as  a  consequence  stimulated 
the  art  of  bookbinding.  When  books  were  produced  singly 
by  copying,  the  binder  could  devote  more  time  to  the  covering; 
but  in  the  Netherlandish  monasteries  and  towns  where  there 
were  a  large  number  of  copyists,  it  was  found  that  the  orna- 
mentation of   the  covers  by  means  of  small   tools  absorbed    too 


EARLY  Examples.  265 

much    time,    and    this    led     in    the    fourteenth    century   to    the 


'■'(  '  .iW 


^^llii''^'' 


"Ê^. 


'/k-\ 


W-^^. 


'Mfej  hh--  'I 


-\  1  "^'  I  h 


1   .  (•   iv~^  -, 


11'       I 


A.V1[JL  r       F    . 


Fig.  150.— Cover  of  the  Evaiigclinrium  of  Noyon,  made  of  skin,  copper  and  horn, 

with  reliquaries. 

invention    of    panel-stamps.      These    very    commonly    bore    an 
inscription  with  the   name   of   the   binder,    who  was  generally  a 


266 


The  Book. 


bookseller    as    well.      Each    bookseller   applied     himself    to    the 
work,   or  at  least  covered    in  his  own  house  books  intended  for 


Fig.  151. — Cover  of  a  book  in  enamelled  goldsmith  work  of  Limoges,  fifteenth  ccnturj', 
representing  Merlin  l'Enchanteur  transformed  into  a  scholar. 

sale.      The    fashion  was   not    then    to   expose   for  sale,   as    now, 
unbound   books.      Purchasers   wanted  an   article   easy   to    handle, 


Early  Examples. 


267 


which    they    were     not     obliged    to    return     for     ulterior     em- 
bellishment. 

So  to  the  public  the  first  printed  books  were  presented 
bound  in  wooden  boards  covered  with  calfskin.  At  the  four 
corners  of  the  larger  sized  volumes,  brass  bosses  prevented 
rubbing  against  the  shelves  of  the  bookcase,  for  at  that  time 
books  were  ranged  on  their  sides,  and  not  as  they  are  to-day. 
We    must     return    to   the    bibliomaniac    of   the    Ship    of    Fools 


Fig.  152. — Bibliomaniac  of  the  Ship  0/  Fools. 


(Fig.  152),  to  get  an  idea  of  these  depositories;  before  him 
may  be  seen  ranged  on  a  desk  large  folios,  with  bosses  on 
their  sides,  in  the  shelves,  so  defying  the  dust,  instead  of 
being  placed  upright  on  their  edges,  which  rendered  them 
liable  to  spots  and  stains. 

Unhappily  the  wooden  sides  had  in  themselves  a  germ  of 
destruction,  the  worm,  capable  first  of  reducing  the  sides  to 
powder    and    then    ravaging    the    body    of    the    work.       Certain 


268  The  Book. 

preparations  destroy  the  insect,  but  the  precaution  often  has 
no  effect,  and  this  may  to  some  extent  account  for  the  dis- 
appearance of  volumes  formerly  abundant,  but  now  almost 
impossible  to   find. 

From  the  beginning  the  operations  of  the  binder  were  what 
they  still  are,  except  for  improvements.  They  consist  in  the 
gathering  and  collation  of  the  sheets  of  a  book,  folding  them, 
beating  them  to  bring  them  together  and  give  them  solidity, 
and  sewing  them  on  to  the  strips  of  strong  leather  or  the  cords, 
which  form  the  four,  five  or  six  bands  seen  on  the  backs. 
Primitively  these  bands  were  brought  into  horizontal  slots  cut 
in  the  thickness  of  the  wooden  boards,  fastened  down  with 
little  pegs,  or  sometimes  with  brass  nails;  the  head-bands  into 
similar  diagonal  slots.  Over  both  boards  was  placed  a  résistent 
skin,  on  which,  from  metal  or  wooden  stamps  cut  in  intaglio, 
were  struck  the  most  pleasing  decorative  subjects.  Calfskin, 
brown  and  fine,  lent  itself  especially  to  ornamentation  of  this 
kind.  In  Central  and  Northern  Germany  pigskin  was  more 
generally  employed. 

The  inside  of  the  board  was  generally  lined  with  parchment, 
vellum  or  paper.  We  reproduce  here  the  binding  of  a  volume 
in  purely  French  style  (Fig.  154),  belonging  to  the  late  M.  Dutuit, 
of  Rouen,  executed  at  the  commencem.ent  of  the  sixteenth 
century  for  Louis  XII.  and  his  Queen,  Anne  de  Bretagne;  not 
more  than  nine  or  ten  specimens  of  such  bindings  remain. 
They  are  of  coarse  aspect.  The  workman  who  tooled  them 
crowded  his  subjects  one  upon  another.  Coats  of  arms,  porcu- 
pines, ermines,  are  treated  so  as  to  be  confusing,  and  form  a 
medley  that  is  not  pleasing.  Very  similar  bindings  were  executed 
for  Francis  I.,  but  with  the  salamander  and  an  F  surmounted 
by  a  royal  crown  in  the  place  of  the  porcupine  and  ermine. 


EARLY  EXAèIPLES. 


2C9 


The     workmen     who     introduced     printing     into     the     other 
countries    of   Europe    were    either    Germans    or    Netherlanders, 


Fig.  153. — Binding  in  gold,  ornamented  vvitli  precious  stones,  having  been  used  for  a 
cover  of  an  EvangcliaiiiDii  of  the  eleventh  century  (Louvre) 

who   lor   a  long  time  were  the   chief  dealers   in    boolvs.     These 
printers  were  either  themselves  bookbinders,  or  were  accompanied . 
in  their  migration  by  binders.      In  France  the  ornamentation  of 


270  The  Book. 

binding  was  influenced  and  modified  to  a  very  great  extent 
by  both  Netherlanders  and  Germans.  In  Italy  there  was  no 
national  style  of  binding,  what  little  there  was  of  ornamental 
leather  binding  being"  a  mere  servile  imitation  of  Arabian  work. 
The  influence  of  German,  especially  of  Swabian,  binders  made 
itself  felt  there  until  well  into  the  first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  Oriental  designs  again  prevailed.  These  were 
often  richly  gilt  and  coloured,  so  much  so  that  the  leather 
itself  was  almost  completely  covered,  as  on  the  binding  of  a 
Koran  (p.  275).  Into  Spain  the  Germans  introduced  their  system 
of  ornamentation,  which,  however,  was  quickly  modified  by  the 
adoption  of  Moorish  details.  In  no  country,  however,  was 
the  style  of  ornamentation  so  completely  denationalised  as  in 
England. 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century  a  charming  innovation  was  introduced,  by  whom  we 
know  not,  perhaps  by  an  Italian,  more  probably  by  a  German 
working  in  Italy.  This  is  now  known  as  gold-tooling.  i\t 
first  it  was  confined  to  gold  dots  sprinkled  here  and  there  in 
the  openings  of  interlaced  work  ;  then  to  leaves  or  flowers 
in  the  angles  formed  by  the  borders  ;  then  the  borders  were 
adorned  alternately  with  plain  and  gilt  ornaments  ;  but  the 
gilt  work  was,  during  the  remainder  of  the  fifteenth  and  the 
earlier  years  of  the  sixteenth  century,  generally  used  with 
moderation  and  good  taste.  Venice  quickly  gained  pre- 
eminence over  the  other  towns  of  Italy;  this  is  easily  accounted 
for  when  we  call  to  mind  the  number  of  foreign  printers, 
artists  and  craftsmen  gathered  together  in  that  city,  where 
bindings  in  the  Persian,  Arabian,  Greek  and  Swabian  styles 
were  produced  at  the  same  time. 

The    art    of  decorative    bookbinding    was    greatly    developed 


Developmext  oe  Decorative  Blxdixg. 


271 


by  Aldus  Islanutius.  The  covers  of  books  issued  from  his 
press  and  bound  in  his  offices  before  1502  were  all  bordered 
with  a  rectangular  frame  adorned  with  designs  in  gold,  in 
imitation  of  Persian  or  Arabian  work  produced  by  the  repeti- 
tion of  a  stamp. 


Fig.  154. — Binding  for  Louis  XII.     Collection  of  M.  Dutuit,  of  Rouen. 

About  1 5 1 2  Aldus  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  wealthy 
iinancier  employed  as  French  treasurer  and  receiver-general 
of  the  Duchy  of  Milan.  This  distinguished  lover  of  books, 
named  -Jean    Grolier,    was,    above  all    his   contemporaries,    even 


2/2  The  Book. 

King  Francis,  the  greatest  patron  of  the  art  of  binding.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say  art,  for  if  better  had  not  been 
done  before,  it  may  safely  be  said  that  nothing  better  has 
been  done  since  ;  and  the  boolis  of  Grolier  remain  as  the 
most  perfect  and  most  admirable  types  of  this  kind  of 
decoration. 

Born  of  a  Veronese  family  established  at  Lyons,  Jean  Grolier 
had  the  good  fortune  to  succeed  his  father,  Etienne  Grolier 
as  treasurer  and  receiver-general  of  the  Duchy  of  Milan.  The 
position  of  the  treasurers  during  the  campaigns  of  the  French 
in  Italy  was  important  ;  they  handled  the  pence  levied  with 
great  trouble  in  the  cities  of  France  "  for  making  war."  Many 
abused  their  trust,  and  were  punished,  and  among  others  the 
Lallemants,  whom  documents  show  us  to  have  been  in  con- 
nection with  Grolier,  and  who  suffered,  with  Semblancay,  the 
most  terrible   trials  of  the  time. 

Italian  art  then  treated  the  decoration  of  books  with  the 
greatest  freedom.  Of  the  interior  we  have  spoken  in  our 
first  chapters  on  wood  engravings  ;  for  the  exterior,  the  cover 
of  the  volume,  foliage,  golden  flowers  worked  with  a  hot 
iron,  and  polychromatic  compartments  obtained  by  coloured 
pastes  were  multiplied.  Thus  was  produced  on  the  outside 
that  which  it  was  no  longer  sought  to  obtain  in  the  interior, 
the  variation  of  tints  so  highly  prized  during  the  middle  age, 
but  generally  forsaken  since  the  invention  of  printing.  In  the 
midst  of  these  literary  men  was  a  lover  of  books  and  fine 
connoisseur  who,  not  content  with  choosing  the  best  editions, 
such  as  those  of  Ferrara,  Venice,  and  Basle,  bound  them 
superbly,  with  compartments  of  admirable  taste,  and  had  his 
name  and  device  inscribed  on  the  sides  in  the  fashion  of  the 
time.       He    was     named     Thomas     Maioli,     and    following    the 


TiioM.  IS  Ma/ou. 


273 


custom  of  the  book-lovers  of  the  time,  he  offered  the  enjoy- 
ment of  his  library  to  his  friends.  "  Tiio.  maioli  et  amicorvm," 
he  inscribed,  as  did  later  Mark  Lauweryn  of  Watervliet, 
Grolier,  and  others,  but  he  somewhat  modified  the  enthusiasm 
of    his     friendship     by     a    sceptical     device,     "  ix(;ratis    skkvirl; 


Fig.  155. — Arms  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  in  whicli  a  bound  book  appears. 


NEPHAS,"  which  might  very  well  be  the  cry  of  the  owner  of 
books  betrayed  by  his  borrowers. 

Maioli  more  often  inscribed  on  his  book-covers  the  phrase 
"iNiiMici  MEi  MEA  MiCHi,  NGN  ME  MiCMi."  He  also  some- 
times used  a  cypher,  which  was  composed  of  all  the  letters 
of  his  name. 

The    relations  of  Grolier   with   this   unknown  and  mysterious 

18 


274  The  Book. 

book-lover,  whose  name  is  not  always  found  outside  his 
volumes,  are  not  doubtful.  Brunet  possessed  a  volume  that 
had  belonged  to  Maioli  and  had  passed  through  the  hands 
of  Grolier.  What  better  proof  could  be  wished  of  the  com- 
munion of  ideas  and  tastes  between  the  two  collectors  ? 

But  these  book-lovers  were  not  alone.  Beside  them  were 
princes  and  great  lords,  lay  and  ecclesiastic.  From  the 
commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century  bookbinding  had 
received  an  enormous  impulse  from  the  tastes  and  the  pre- 
dilections of  these  wealthy  collectors.  And  it  cannot  be 
ascribed  to  the  simple  skill  of  the  workmen  experimenting 
in  that  line.  The  century  that  saw  Italian  artists  occupied  in 
making  designs  for  raised  pies,  painting  beautiful  ladies  and 
the  courtesans  of  Florence,  could  not  be  alarmed  at  finding 
them  painting  models  for  bindings,  with  compartments  of 
varied  tone  and  style.  Maioli  affected  white  on  a  background 
of  dark  leather.  His  book- covers  are  adorned  with  scrolls  of 
foliage  in  white  or  clear  paste  with  a  very  happy  effect 
(see  Fig.    157). 

This  was  the  time  when  Grolier  travelled  in  Italy, 
sojourning  sometimes  at  Naples,  but  generally  at  Milan,  and 
often  visiting  Venice.  He  had  already  acquired  the  reputation 
of  being  a  great  lover  of  books,  and  was  soon  in  communication 
with  the  Alduses,  and  through  them  with  the  principal  learned 
men  and  binders  of  the  time. 

Following  the  fashion,  Grolier  put  his  name  on  the 
obverse  side  of  his  books — "  10.  grolierii  et  amicorvm  " — 
in  gold  letters,  and  on  the  reverse  the  pious  ejaculation  of 
the  Royal  Psalmist  :  "  portio  mea  domine  sit  in  terra 
vivENTiVM."  Generally  all  the  Grolier  books  which  came  from 
the    Alduses    have    the    name    on     the    obverse    and    the    motto 


Fig.  156. — Cover  of  an  old  Koran. 


2/6  The  Book. 

on  the  reverse  side  ;  the  title  was  placed  above  the  name 
and  often  disposed  in  rows.  Some  large  volumes  had  the 
cover  ornamented  with  an  architectural  design,  like  the 
lamblichus  of  the  Libri  collection,  which  had  on  the  front 
the  façade  of  a  temple,  with  the  title  in  rows  on  the  door. 
This  volume  was  printed  by  Aldus  in  1516,  and  probably 
decorated  by  him  for  the  great  French  amateur. 

Jean  Grolier  is  said  to  have  himself  designed  some  of 
the  subjects  of  his  ornaments,  and  their  perfection  indicates 
an  active  and  enlightened  supervision.  He  returned  to  France 
in  1530,  took  up  his  abode  at  Paris,  in  a  house  near  the 
Porte  de  Bucy,  before  1537,  when  he  held  the  office  of 
treasurer  of  the  king's  finances  in  the  Isle  of  France  and 
the  district  beyond  the  Seine  and  Yonne,  until  1545,  when  he 
became  treasurer-general  of  France,  which  office  he  held 
until  his  death.  At  Paris  he  came  into  relation  with  Geoffroy 
Tory,  the  artist  best  fitted  to  understand  him,  and  who  was 
himself  painter,  engraver,  printer,  and  binder.  It  was  there 
that,  in  the  leisure  of  his  financial  functions,  between  two 
projects  for  revictualling  the  forts  of  Outre  Seine  and  Yonne, 
Grolier  invented  combinations,  sought  interfacings,  and  laid 
out  foliage.  Tory  himself  tells  us  of  these  works  undertaken 
in  common.  It  was  for  Grolier,  as  he  relates  in  his  Chavip- 
fleury\  that  he  invented  antique  letters.  It  was  for  him,  too, 
that  he  interwove  so  finely  his  designs  in  compartments  for 
binding,  and  that  he  reproduced  the  delightful  ornaments  of 
his   Books  of  Hours  in  golden  scrolls. 

As  we  have  said,  Grolier  placed  his  titles  on  the  sides 
of  his  books  on  account  of  the  arrangement  of  the  works 
on  the  shelves  of  the  library  where  they  were  laid.  For 
this     reason     also    the    back    was     neglected,    and    no    ornament 


JEAX  GROUER. 


277 


used  upon  it  ;  thick  and  heavy  with  its  projecting  bands, 
without  any  decoration  between  them,  this  part  of  the  bound 
volume  was  a  kind  of  waste  in  a  splendidly  cultivated 
garden.  i^The  profusion  of  books  brought  about  a  revolution. 
There  was  no  longer  room  to  place  on  their  sides  the 
innumerable  books   that   were  produced  ;    they   were  then    placed 


Fig._157. — The  fourth  part  of  a  binding  for  Thomas  Maioli  (sixteenth  centurj). 


on  their  edges,  as  now,  and  the  back  also  was  decorated. 
For  this  the  bands  were  made  to  disappear,  and  were  replaced 
by  decorative  subjects  in  compartments  like  the  sides.  Then 
with  Grolier  the  bands  reappeared,  and  the  title  was  placed 
between  them,  as  it  still  is. 

In    the    centre    of    each    side    was    almost    always    a    square. 


278  The  Book. 

lozenge  or  shield-shaped  space  reserved  for  the  title  on  one 
side  and  for  his  motto  on  the  other  ;  at  the  foot  of  the 
obverse,  between  the  lines  of  the  border,  was  printed  in  small 
Roman  capitals  :  lo.  grolierii  et  amicorvm.  Sometimes,  how- 
ever, this  was  placed  immediately  beneath  the  title  ;  in  four 
instances  on  the  obverse  side,  and  in  three  on  the  back.  On 
two  others  a  second   motto    is  inscribed  :    taxova.m  \  entvs  est 

VITA    .MEA. 

The  books  of  Grolier  have  been  divided  into  two  series  : 
those  bound  for  himself,  and  those  originally  bound  for  others, 
but  which  he  subsequently  acquired  by  gift  or  purchase.  The 
bindings  of  many  of  these  were  too  remarkable  to  be  destroyed, 
and  he  merely  had  his  name  and  motto  impressed  on  them,  or 
if  this  could  not  well  be  done,  he  wrote  them  on  the  fly-leaf 
The  volumes  bound  expressly  for  him  are  all  covered  either 
with  morocco  or  yellow  or  brown  calf,  and  may  be  grouped  in 
four  classes  :  first,  those  ornamented  in  compartments,  with 
scrolls,  full-gilt  or  adorned  with  parallel  gilt  lines.  After  these 
come  the  bindings  in  the  style  of  Geoffroy  Tory,  with  gilt 
compartments  ;  then,  the  polychromatic  bindings,  in  which, 
by  the  aid  of  colour  or  mastic,  the  alternating  tones  are 
mixed.  Grolier  also  had  some  mosaic  bindings,  composed 
of  little  pieces  of  leather  connected  by  incrustation  or  paste, 
pure  Italian  bindings  ;  but  these  were  not  numerous,  especially 
if  compared  with  those  conceived  in  the  manner  of  Geoffroy 
Tory. 

One  of  these  latter  works  is  here  reproduced  from  a  beau- 
tiful volume  in  the  collection  of  the  late  M.  Dutuit.  This  copy 
has  the  back  flat,  and  the  interlacings  of  the  decoration  are 
most  complicated  and  clever. 

Grolier   got    his    Levant     moroccos    through     the    dealers    of 


Jean  Grolier. 


279 


Venice,   to    make    sure    of    the     excellence    of   the    material     he 
employed. 

Born   in    1479,    the    treasurer-general    of   France  'lived    until 


Fig.  15S. — Binding  for  Grolier  in  the  collection  of  IVI.  Dutuit. 

22nd  October,  1565.  In  1563  an  original  manuscript  shows 
him  much  occupied  with  finance  at  over  eighty-four  years  of 
age  ;    but    his    passion    for    bindings    had    cooled    down,   for    few 


28o 


The  Book. 


book-covers  bearing  his  name  are  found  the  execution  of  which 
can   belong   to   a  later  date  than  the  reign  of  Henry   II.      After 


Fig    159. — Binding  for  Francis  I.,  \vi[h  the  arms  ot  France  and  the 
salamander. 

great  trials,  after  having  seen  Semblancay  suffer  at  Montfaucon, 
Jean  Lallemand  beheaded,  and  himself  having  narrowly  escaped 
losing  life  and  fortune  at  one  blow,  Grolier  passed  away  quietly 


GUYOT  MARCHAXT. 


281 


in  his  house,  having  collected  most  of  the  fine  books  of  the 
time  and  many  curious  medals.  Christophe  de  Thou,  his  friend 
and  confrère  in  the  love  of  books,  had  saved  his  reputation 
before  the  Parliament  of  Paris.  After  his  death  his  library  was 
transported  to  the  Hotel  de  V'ic,  and  from  thence  dispersed  in 
1675,  a  hundred  years  after. 


Fig.  160. — Mark  of  Guyot  Marchant,  printer  and  bookbinder.     He 
published  the  Danse  Macabre  of  1485. 

Thus  from  Italy  came  a  change  in  the  style  of  French 
binding,  which,  however,  still  remained  original.  The  kings 
did  not  fail  to  follow  the  movement,  and  even  to  anticipate 
it,  thanks  to  the  means  at  their  disposal.  We  shall  see 
Prancis  1.  occupied  with  bindings,  and  we  know  the  name  of 
one    craftsman    who     worked    for  that    monarch  ;     but    Geoffroy 


282 


The  Book. 


Tory  must  have  been  his  principal  inspirer,  and  who  knows 
but  that  he  also  himself  carried  out  the  best  work  executed 
for  the  prince,  as  he  did  for  the  great  financier  ? 


Fie 


-Binding  for  Henrj-  II.,  with  the  "  H  "  and  crescents. 


We  have  said  that  Louis  XII.  knew  nothing  of  fine  bindings. 
During  his  travels  in  Italy  he  had  received  presentation  copies 
of  magnificently    covered   books,    and   among  others    the    potms 


B/.\7J/.\GS  FUR  HEXRY  11. 


283 


of  Faustus  Atidrelinus,  bound  in  calf  in  his  honour.  He,  who 
knew  so  httle  of  the  fine  arts,  purchased  the  entire  Hbrary  of 
Louis  de   la  Gruuthuuse,   and   substituted  his  own   emblems   for 


Fig.  162. — Binding  for  Henry  II.  (Mazarine  Library). 

those  of  that  wealthy  Fleming.  Francis  I.,  with  innate  senti- 
ment for  masterpieces  and  the  powerful  protection  he  had  given 
them,  did  not  allow  the  experiments  of  Grolier  to  pass  un- 
noticed.       The    kincj   did    not   wish   to   be   behind   the   treasurer. 


284  The  Book. 

and  so  the  binders  were  set  to  work  for  him.  He  had  adopted 
the  salamander  as  his  badge  ;  this  emblem  he  used  on  his 
■castles  and  furniture  and  the  liveries  of  his  people  ;  he  lavished 
it  also  on  the  sides  of  his  books,  together  with  an  "  F  "  en- 
signed  with  a  crown,  and  the  arms  of  France  with  the  collar 
•of  the  order  of  St.  Michael.  The  design  of  the  binding  here 
represented  (Fig.  159),  if  not  by  Geoffroy  Tory  himself,  was  cer- 
tainly suggested  by  his  works.  It  must  not  be  thought  that  this 
ornamentation  was  produced  at  a  single  blow  by  means  of  an 
engraved  plate  or  a  block.  On  the  contrary,  every  detail 
was  separately  impressed  by  a  hot  tool  applied  by  the  work- 
man's hand  to  the  gold  laid  on  in  advance,  making  it,  so  to 
speak,  enter  into  the  skin  or  morocco.  That  was  art  binding  ; 
blocks  were  only  used  for  commercial  bindings,  quickly  im- 
pressed  and  intended  for  ordinary  purchasers. 

During  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  the  binders  were  the  book- 
sellers, as  Vérard  and  Vostre  had  been.  The  king  generally 
employed  a  publisher  named  Pierre  Roffet,  and  it  is  his  name 
that  most  frequently  figures  in  the  accounts  that  have  been  pre- 
served. Roffet  not  only  bound,  but  it  appears  also  rebound 
books  to  patterns  which  the  king  desired.  Philippe  Lenoir  and 
Guyot  Marchant  were  also  royal  workmen.  The  latter,  placed 
beneath  his  mark,  here  reproduced  (Fig.  160),  the  figures  of  Saints 
Crispin  and  Crispinian,  patrons  of  the  leather-dressers,  who 
prepared  the  leather  for  the  binder. 

The  binders  in  Grolier's  time  had  not  much  time  to  be  idle. 
Thousands  of  volumes  were  then  destroyed  to  make  the  boards 
for  sides.  Owing  to  this,  many  discoveries  are  made  in  our 
days  by  pulling  to  pieces  sixteenth  century  work, — unknown 
playing  cards  and  portions  of  early  printed  works.  To  mention 
only  one    instance,  twentv    leaves    of   the   Perspective   of   Viator 


B/\DJ.XG  FOR  CATHKRIXK  DE  MEDICI. 


28^ 


were  discovered  in  the  binding  of  a  volume  in  tlie  National 
Library  at  Paris.  The  board  thus  formed  was  covered  in- 
differently with  sheepslcin,  parchment,  calf,  morocco,  or  goatskin  ; 
the    books    were    sewn    on    bands    or    cords,    according    to    the 


Fig.  163. — Italian  binding  for  Catherine  de  Medici,  with  the 
initials  "  C.  C." 


owner's  taste  ;  the  edges  were  gilt,  sometimes  gauffered,  and 
designs  often  impressed  upon  them  to  match  those  of  the  sides. 
For  large  folios  wooden  boards  were  still  used,  more  solid,  and 
protected    from  rubbing    by  nails    in    relief       But    the    inside    of 


286  The  Book. 

the  cover  was  as  yet  only  covered  with  paper.      Leather  linings 
were  extremely  uncommon. 

The  reign  of  Henry  II.  increased  yet  more  the  importance 
of  bindings  ;  it  was  the  time  when  Grolier  collected,  and  clever 
artists  came  from  all  parts.  Geoffroy  Tory  had  given  the  best 
models  for  letters  and  interlacings.  The  Queen,  Catherine, 
derived  from  her  parents  the  taste  for  decoration  in  gold  and 
colours,  and  patronised  the  artists  called  by  her  trom  the  court 
of  Florence  ;  and  the  favourite,  Diana  of  Poitiers,  Duchess  of 
Valentinois,  rivalled  her  in  luxury  and  expenditure.  Henry  II. 
in  the  decoration  of  his  castles,  as  well  as  his  books,  introduced 
doubtful  emblems.  He  interlaced  two  reversed  "  D's  "  with 
an  "  H,"  in  the  form  shown  in  the  border  on  page  283. 
Strictly  speaking,  we  ought  to  see  there  two  "  C's  "  back 
to  back;  but  as  we  find  the  "D"  on  all  the  bindings  dis- 
playing the  arms  of  Diana,  there  can  be  little  doubt.  Other 
emblems  of  Diana  are  to  be  found  in  the  bows  and  crescents 
that  are  plentifully  displayed.  The  library  of  Diana  was  large, 
owing  to  the  king  not  hesitating  to  take  valuable  books  for 
her  from  the  royal  collections.  Two  centuries  after  her  death 
it  was  dispersed,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  books  belonging 
to  the  royal  collections  were  restored  on  the  deaths  of  those 
who  then  purchased  them.  Hence  the  largest  number  of  the 
bindings  of  Henry  II.  and  Diana  of  Poitiers  will  be  found  in 
the  National  Library  of  Paris. 

Queen  Catherine  also  had  special  patterns  with  a  monogram 
identical  with  the  double  "  D  "  nientioned  above,  but  the 
branches  of  the  "  C  "  were  a  little  longer  than  the  branches 
of  the  "H  ;"  she  also  used  a  "K"  on  the  sides  of  her 
books.  The  specimen  which  we  reproduce  (Fig.  163),  is  a  purely 
Italian   work. 


Pli  1 1  'A  TE  Colite  ctors. 


287 


Frcm  kings  and  queens  the  fashion  passed  to  the  great 
lords,  it  having  come  to  the  kings  and  queens  from  a  private 
individual.      The   Constable   Anne  de   Montmorency   adorned   his 


jp 

n 

B 

JM 

Bl 

i 

|k| 

^j . 

FO  RC  E- 

M  E  S  T  ■  T  R  0  p  •  '^ 

^hB| 

1 

1 

'        ^N. 

i 

^9 

1 

jB^jMbIi 

t^'V 

^Jy 

/ 

<^V       V  -K 

■MBMBHIIBHBBI 

ig 

u^sfvK^,^! 

^ 

^^ 

0H 

i 

1 

m 

^ 

^ 

II^^SSsf^H 

"^ 

-0': 

p 

SlIlK 

C     7^    ^ 

^ 

;V. 

^^^ 

nSSk 

% 

'  *.  '  *.'■*'.' 

^H 

|^'^>|^Rs^^Rf^.?vl 

-^ 

|^f?|^ 

^^9 

V^^^^^i^^^afl^^l 

S 

^^ 

■tSV^^R^^^^B^^B^^ 

IK^^ 

! 

•MA 

Ni  F  E"l'f 

s 

Fig.  164. — Binding  with  the  arms  of  Mansfeldt,  with  Une  J  scroll  work, 
from  the  Didot  ccUection. 

bindings  with  a  cross  and  spread  eagle.  Among  the  book- 
lovers  of  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries 
using  distinctive  marks,  we  may  mention  Philippe  Desportes,  the 


288  The  Book. 

poet,  who  used  two  «t  enlaced,  as  did  also  Superintendent 
Fouquet  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  brothers  Dupuy 
adopted  the  double  A,  arranged  as  a  star.  Colbert  had  a 
curled  snake  {coluber  for  Colbert  !),  the  Gondis  two  war-maces, 
Madame  de  Pompadour  three  towers,  etc.  Fouquet  beside 
the  4>  used  a  squirrel  on  some  of  his  bindings. 

In  Germany,  Count  Mansfeldt  adopted  the  ornamental  style 
with  arms  (Fig.  164),  of  which  a  specimen  is  here  given.  Among 
the  lords  of  the  French  courts  who  favoured  polychromatic 
ornament  and  bold  compositions  were  the  young  Valois, 
Louis  de  Sainte  Maure,  Marquis  of  Nesle,  and  Henri  de  Guise, 
called  "  Le  Balafré." 

Charles  IX.  had  his  emblems  and  devices,  the  double  "  C  " 
crowned  the  legend  "  Pietate  et  jvstitia,"  but  his  brother, 
Henry  HI.,  loved  the  decoration  of  books  more  than  he  did. 
The  passion  of  this  king  for  miniatures  which  he  cut  out  of 
books  is  known  ;  his  love  of  golden  things  showed  itself  also  on 
bindings,  for  which  he  chose  special  designs.  Henry  III.  was 
an  amateur  of  dances  of  death  ;  he  visited  cemeteries,  attended 
funerals,  and  took  a  death's-head  for  his  emblem.  This  em- 
blem was,  however,  not  his  invention  ;  long  before  him  Marot  had 
addressed  an  epigram  to  a  lady  in  which  he  brought  love  and 
death  into  close  conjunction.  However  that  may  be,  the  king 
chose  skeletons  and  penitents'  tears  to  ornament  his  books. 
He  also  tolerated  diamonds,  although  he  absolutely  prohibited 
them  in  the  adornment  of  ladies  or  fixed  the  number  pro  rata 
with  the  rank  of  the  authorised  person.  There  was  in  this 
prince  a  singular  mi.xture  of  taste  and  artistic  acuteness  by  the 
side  of  a  mania  or  hallucination  which  was  reflected  on  the 
most  intimate  objects  of  his  apparel  or  of  his  furniture.  Thus 
if  we   find,   at   the   end   of  the   sixteenth   century,  a  death's-head 


JACQUES  DE  Thou. 


289 


Fig.  165.-   Part  of  a  binding  having  belonged  to  Jacques  de  Thou  (sixteenth  century^. 


19 


290 


The  Book. 


on    the    sides    or  the  back   of  a  volume,    the   binding   is   of  the 
period  of  Henry   III. 

The  binders  of  his  time  are  known  by  the  mention  that  is 
made  of  them  in  the  royal  accounts  ;  the  Eves  were  the  most 
celebrated  among  them  all.  Nicholas  Eve  was  charged  with 
the  binding  of  the  Statutes  of  the  Order  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
with  which  the  king  gratified  his  friends.  Mention  of  this  work 
is  found  in  the  Clairambault  manuscripts,  where  we  read,  "To 
Nicholas    Eve,   washer  and    binder  of  books    and    bookseller   to 


^^^^^^^^ 

\^^1^^^^^^^^^^ 

\ 

^B^SV  ^\^^^^ 

1 

Fig   i66.  -  Mark  of  Nicholas  Eve,  binder  of  Henry  111. 
and  Henry  IV. 

the  king,  forty-seven  and  a  half  escus  for  washing,  gilding,  and 
squaring  the  edges  of  forty-two  books  of  statutes  and  ordinances 
of  the  Order,  bound  and  covered  with  orange  Levant  morocco, 
enriched  on  one  side  with  the  arms  of  the  king,  fully  gilt,  and 
on  the  other  with  those  of  France  and  Poland,  with  cyphers  at 
the  four  corners,  and  flames  on  the  rest  of  the  ground,  with 
orange  and  blue  ribands,"  etc. 

Louisa  of  Lorraine,  wife  of  Henry  III.,  counted  for  little  in 
the  life  of  her  husband  ;  nevertheless  she  had  a  certain  number 
of  books  decorated  with   their  united  escutcheons. 


Nicolas  Eve. 


291 


The  bindings  attributed   to  Eve  were  decorated  all  over  the 
sides  and  back  with  inter'acing  patterns  of  geometrical  character, 


Fig    167. —  Sixteenlh  century  binding,  called  11 /« /"rtH/(7;f.      In  the 
Dutuit  collection. 

the  spaces  between  the  parallel    lines  and  in    the  middle  of  the 
figures    left    at    first    quite    blank,    but    afterwards    filled    in    with 


292  The  Book. 

palm  branches  and  wreaths  of  foliage  ;  to  these  delicate  and 
elaborate  yet  brilliant  toolings  have  been  given  the  name  of 
bindinp-s  à  la  fanfare.  The  origin  of  this  designation  is  doubtful, 
and  is  a  good  example  of  the  peculiar  terminology  adopted 
by  modern  amateurs. 

The  fine  work  of  that  time  prepared  the  way  for  the  coming 
in  the  seventeenth  century — about  1620 — of  the  artist  known 
as  Le  Gascon,  with  whom  in  our  days  are  connected  the 
bindings  executed  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII.  Under 
Henry  IV.  the  fleur-de-lys  occupied  most  of  the  covers  of  the 
royal  books,  from  vellum  to  Levant  morocco  ;  works  in  this 
class  had  nothing  very  remarkable.  The  first  years  of 
Louis  XIII.  revealed  a  new  process,  inspired  by  the  Eves. 
Le  Gascon  embroidered  delightfully  on  the  fanfare  ornaments  ; 
showing  the  fibres  of  the  leaves,  he  made  a  new  kind  of 
ornament,  consisting  of  minute  gold  dots  elaborated  into  lines 
and  curves  of  singular  brilliancy  and  elegance.  Of  this  style, 
called  pointillé,  we  give  a  specimen  from  the  collection  of  M. 
Dutuit  (Fig.  168).  The  fashion  had  sprung  up  all  at  once  ;  lace, 
banished  from  clothing  by  severe  edicts,  found  a  refuge  on  the 
covering  of  books. 

The  times  were  hard  then  for  binders  in  France  ;  they  were 
constrained  to  live  in  the  university  and  to  employ  only  its 
workmen.  A  binder  was  never  his  own  gilder  ;  he  employed 
the  gatifreurs  of  shoe-leather,  more  expert  and  bolder,  to  gild 
his  leather.  Among  these  artisans  at  Paris  was  one  named 
Pigorreau,  whom  the  edict  found  living  in  the  midst  of 
publishers  and  working  for  them  ;  he  was  compelled  to 
choose  either  to  remain  a  bootmaker  or  become  a  bookseller  ; 
he  chose  the  latter,  against  the  wish  of  the  syndics  of  the 
trade,  against    everyone,  and   he  so   made    enemies  for    himself. 


Le  G.'iscnx  B/.\/)/.\G.  293 

He    revenged    himself  by   turning    the    masters    into    ridicule    in 
a  placard. 

Le    Gascon    was    probably    the    assumed    name    of  an    artist 


Fig.  168.-- Le  Gascon  binding. 


in  this  style,  perhaps  of  Clovis  Eve,  son  of  Nicholas.  The 
Guirlande  de  Julie,  tooled  by  him  for  Mademoiselle  de 
Rambouillet,  gave  him  great  honour  in  the  .special  circle  of  this 


294  The  Book. 

Httle  literary  court.  It  was  the  fashion  then  for  poor  authors 
to  put  a  fine  covering  on  their  works  and  to  offer  them  to 
the  great  for  their  own  profit.  Tallement  des  Reaux  notably 
signalises  the  poet  Laserre,  who  displayed  his  luxury  in 
irreproachable  bindings.  And  then  the  farmers  of  the  revenue, 
successors  of  Grolier  in  financial  trusts,  formed  libraries  for 
pure  fashion's  sake,  never  opening  the  volumes  covered  for 
them  in  sumptuous  attire.  If  we  may  believe  Sauvai,  author 
of  the  Antiquités  de  Paris,  they  went  further,  and  on  the  covers 
of  sham  books  inscribed  imaginary  titles  and  fantastic  squibs 
to  mislead  their  visitors.  The  bookcase  being  carefully  closed, 
it  was  difficult  to  discover  the  imposition.  Sauvai  writes,  "  In 
pbce  of  books,  they  are  content  with  covers  of  levant  morocco, 
on  the  backs  of  which,  in  gold  letters,  are  inscribed  the  names 
of  the  most  celebrated  authors.  A  binder  of  the  university 
assured  me  that  not  long  since  he  and  his  confreres  had  made 
sham    books    for   a    single    financier    to    the    amount    of    10,000 


crowns 


Q  I" 


The  bindings  of  Le  Gascon  will  be  found  more  often 
covering  books  belonging  to  great  personages  than  to  this  class 
of  collectors,  who  did  not  appreciate  their  grace  and  charm. 
The  king's  brother  Gaston  possessed  them,  as  did  Mazarin, 
an  example  from  whose  library  is  here  reproduced  (Fig.  170). 
On  this  binding  Le  Gascon  worked  gilt  compartments  and 
elaborate  arabesques  ;  in  the  middle  of  the  sides  are  the  arms 
of  the  Cardinal  and  his  pretentious  device:  "arma  ivlii 
ORNANT  FRANCiAM  !  " — "The  amis  of  Julius  adorn  France!" 
In  spite  of  the  profusion  of  subjects,  nothing  could  be  pro- 
duced better  calculated  to  please  the  eye  or  indicate  a  man 
of  taste. 

But    if    Le    Gascon    be    a    legendary    personage,    he    had    an 


Le  Gascux  BixDixc. 


295 


imitator  or  rival,  very  near  to  him,  named  Florimond  Badier, 
whose  worlvs  had  at  least  the  advantage  of  being  signed.  At 
the    bottom    of   the    inside    cover    of   an    inlaid   morocco  binding 


Fig.  169. — Binding  executed  by  Le  Gascon  for  the  MS.  of  Lafontaine's.^f/oH('s, 
liaving  belonged  to  Fouquet  (seventeenth  century). 


in  the  National  Library  at  Paris  is  the  inscription  "  Florimond 
Badier  fee,  inv."  The  analogy  between  this  work  and  those 
known  as  Le  Gascon's  is  palpable;  inside  and  outside,  the 
cover    is  stippled  with   small    tools    {an  petit  fer)   in    the    same 


296  The  Book. 

manner.  Florimond  Badier  was  not  appointed  bookseller  until 
1645,  and  so  could  not  have  composed  earlier  bindings  attri- 
buted to  Le  Gascon,  but  this  resemblance  of  style  proves  the 
existence  of  a  Parisian  school,  the  adepts  of  which  copied 
one    another,  as   they    do  nowadays. 

The  work  was  soon  simplified  ;  pallets  and  wheel-shaped 
tools  were  invented  to  produce  that  which  was  improperly 
called  dentelle  ;  this  mechanical  work  was  done  by  a  wheel- 
shaped  tool,  previously  heated,  on  sized  gold  leaves,  on 
which   it   impressed    its    projections. 

With  Louis  XI\'.  the  passion  for  gilding  increased. 
Charming  festoons  were  designed,  but  they  were  soon  abused, 
and  inundated  the  libraries.  On  the  sides  were  seen  rising 
suns,  arms,  and  golden  garlands.  Cramoisy  directed  the  royal 
bindings,  the  king  having  devoted  large  sums  to  the  purchase 
of  Levant  leathers.  In  1666  the  Director  of  Works  ordered 
red  moroccos  ;  in  1667  he  received  twenty-two  dozen  skins, 
amounting,  with  the  expenses  of  transport,  to  i,C20  livres 
tournois.  Successive  supplies  were  obtained,  and  were  used 
for  the  royal  library,  sixty-nine  dozen  in  1667,  forty-six  dozen 
in  1668,  and  three  hundred  and  thirty-three  dozen  in  1670, 
costing  the  king  more  than  12,000  livres.  On  these  admir- 
ably dressed  skins,  which,  in  spite  of  incessant  use,  still 
remain  now  as  in  their  first  days,  the  king  caused  to  be 
applied  tools  of  borders,  and  placed  in  the  middle  the  arms 
of  France,  with  the  collar  of  the  Order  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Among  the  binders  mentioned  in  the  very  useful  work  of 
M.  J.  J.  Guiffrey  on  the  expenditure  of  Louis  XIV.,  we 
find  Gilles  Dubois,  who  died  before  1670;  Levasseur,  binder 
to  Huet,  Bishop  of  Avranches  ;  La  Tour,  Mérins  or  Merius, 
who  died    before    1676;    and    also    Ruette,  the  reputed  inventor 


Le  Gascon  Bixdixg. 


297 


of  marbled  paper  for  fly-leaves  of  books  :  to  him  the  bindings 
of  the  Chancellor  de  Séguier,  with  their  ornament  of  the 
golden    fleece,    and    of  Madame   de  Séguier,    are   attributed.      It 


ilflflff^^ff!ffyP^yfPl»TT;«MiiM!!W^ 


Fig.  170. — Le  Gascon  binding  for  Cardinal  Mazarin. 


was  probably  these  men  who  decorated  the  books  of  the 
brothers  Dupuy,  Fouquet,  and  Colbert,  marvellous  works  of 
solidity,  if  not  always  of  elegance,  which  have  resisted  all 
assaults.      Unhappily,  in  many  instances  the  mechanical  dentelle 


298  THE  Book. 

overburdened  the  work,  and  gave  it  a  commonplace  regularity. 
In  the  Condé,  Colbert,  and  perhaps  even  Madame  de  Longue- 
ville's  collections,  there  are  many  specimens  of  this  kind  with 
two  or  three  filleted  borders. 

We  have  come  to  an  epoch  when  the  difficulties  resulting 
from  confusion  between  the  booksellers'  and  binders'  trades 
began  to  be  understood.  The  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  entailed  a  crowd  of  measures  and  rules  in  all  branches 
of  national  industry.  It  was  a  good  occasion  to  prevent  the 
artisans  of  binding  from  unduly  parading  themselves  as 
booksellers  and  selling  merchandise  of  which  they  understood 
nothing  ;  Louis  XIV^.  interfered,  and  separated  the  two  com 
munities.  The  binders  then  became  the  relieiirs-dorciirs  of 
books  ;  they  had  their  own  organisation,  but  remained  subject 
to  the  university  ;  the  heads  of  the  fraternity  were  called  the 
"  guards.  "  The  principal  arrangements  of  the  regulation  of 
1 749  were  :  the  members  of  the  corporation  had  the  sole  right 
to  bind  books,  from  the  elegant  volume  to  registers  of  blank 
paper.  Five  years  of  apprenticeship  and  three  of  fellow- 
ship were  necessary  to  obtain  the  freedom  and  the  right  to 
hold  a  shop.  Moreover,  no  one  could  become  a  master-binder 
unless  he  could  read  and  write.  One  regulation  ordained  that 
the  workman  should  be  "  able  to  bind  and  ornament  ordinary 
books  or  others,  to  return  them  in  perfect  order,  to  sew  the 
sheets  with  thread  on  real  bands,  with  joints  of  parchment, 
and  not  of  paper  ;  and  in  case  of  noncompliance,  the  said  books 
were  to  be  re -bound  at  the  expense  of  the  offender,  who 
was  besides  condemned  to  a  penalty  of  thirty  livres  for  each 
volume."  Their  establishment  was  confined  to  the  quarter 
from  the  Rue  St.  André  des  Arts  to  the  Place  Maubert  ; 
they  regulated    the    sale    of  calfskin    and  of  tools  ;    in    a    word, 


Mosaic  B/.\'jj/\g. 


299 


they   were   surrounded  by    precautions  by  which    the  production 
remained    always    under    the    supervision    of    the    masters    and 


^.*  .  A^S^ul,  .  J,i 


ï'ig.  171. — Mosaic  binding  cfthe  ei^jhteenth  centi:ry  for  the  Spnccio  dc 
la  Bcst.'a  Tn'oiifnnte. 


completely    satisfied    the    client.     This    exacting    policy    was,    in 
fact,  a  close  imitation  of  the  royal  ordinance  of  16S6. 

The    mosaic    bindings    used    from    the   end    of  the    reign   of 


300  THE  Book. 

Louis  XIV.  were  an  application  of  pared  leathers  of  colours 
different  from  the  background,  pasted  on  to  the  side.  The 
binders  of  the  regency  executed  a  great  number,  now  attributed 
to  Pasdeloup,  just  as  all  the  crayons  of  the  sixteenth  century 
are  called  Clouets,  and  the  panels  on  wood,  Holbeins.  It 
is  not  that  there  was  great  originality  or  any  particular  art 
in  these  works  ;  more  often  the  workman  did  no  more  than 
imitate  Le  Gascon  or  Eve  or  the  older  binders,  and  accommo- 
dated the  processes  of  these  artists  to  the  fashion  of  his  time. 
Of  bindings  in  this  style  we  may  cite  the  Spaccio  de  la  Bcstia 
Trionfante  (Fig.  171),  printed  at  Paris  in  15S4,  for  which 
the  binder  designed  a  cover  of  doubtful  taste  and  undeniably 
wanting  in  proportion.  The  tendency  was  then  to  flowers 
occupying  three-fourths  of  the  page,  to  compartments  too  large, 
to  seeded  pomegranates,  as  on  the  binding  of  the  Spaccio  here 
reproduced.  Had  Pasdeloup  himself  invented  these  mediocre 
combinations,  he  could  not  be  proclaimed  the  regenerator  of  a 
fallen  art.  The  bastard  style  of  these  works  may  be  compared 
to  their  mosaics,  constructed  of  pieces  ;  it  is  a  little  of 
everything,  and  as  a  whole  it  is  nothing.  However,  in  the 
midst  of  a  vast  amount  of  very  inferior  work,  some  pleasing 
decoration  is  from  time  to  time  met  with  ;  the  design  of  a 
volume  with  the  arms  of  the.  Regent  (Fig.  172),  and  his  wife, 
Mademoiselle  de  Blois,  is  neither  wanting  in  elegance  nor  in 
taste  ;  though  far  from  perfection,  it  has  better  proportion  and 
balance. 

We  should,  however,  hesitate  to  give  names  to  all  these 
works.  Besides  the  Pasdeloups,  there  were  the  Deromes,  partly 
abandoning  the  mosaics,  devising  flowers  and  dentelles  in  com- 
bination, and  no  longer  the  simple  products  of  the  fillet.  They 
formed    quite    a    dynasty  ;     and    if    there    were    at  least    twelve 


Pasdeloup  a.\d  Derome. 


301 


Pasdeloups,  there  were  not  less  than  fourteen  Deromes  all 
booksellers  and  binders  from  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  The 
most  celebrated  was  Jacques  Antoine,  who  died  in    1761. 


Fig.  172. — Mosaic  binding  oi  the;  eightLtnth  century,  witli  tlie  arms  ot 
the  Regent.     M.  Morgand's  collection. 


Pierre  Paul  Dubuisson  was  not  only  a  binder  ;  he  was  also  a 
draughtsman.  He  designed  heraldic  ornaments,  and  models  for 
gilding  tools,   in    which   his    contemporaries    emulated    him.      He 


302  The  Book. 

was  intimate  with  the  delicate  vignettist  Eisen,  and  the  counsels 
of  an  artist  of  his  merit  could  not  but  be  useful  to  him.  It  is 
an  extraordinary  thing  that  in  this  world  of  celebrated  printers, 
amateur  financiers,  and  notable  painters  and  engravers,  not  a 
single  man  should  have  been  found  to  give  a  real  impulse  to 
the  art  of  which  we  speak,  and  to  prevent  the  dull  continuance 
of  experiments  on  the  whole  so  poor.  Doubtless  the  dentelles 
of  Derome  had  a  certain  air  of  gaiety,  to  which  the  books  of 
the  eighteenth  century  accommodated  themselves  perfectly  ;  the 
tools  of  Dubuisson  produce  most  pleasing  designs  ;  but  the  old, 
the  great  binders,   had  altogether  disappeared. 

Besides,  Derome  massacred  without  pity  the  rarest  works. 
He  loved  edges  very  regularly  cut,  and  he  did  not  fail  to  hew 
down  margins  opposed  to  his  taste.  He  sawed  books  as  well  ; 
that  is  to  say,  in  place  of  sewing  the  sheets  on  to  projecting 
bands,  he  made  a  groove  in  the  back,  in  which  the  cord  was 
embedded.     The  books  bound  by  him  have  no  wear. 

To  these  celebrated  names  of  French  binders  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  we  may  add  Le  Monnier,  who  worked  for  the 
Orleans  princes  ;  Tessier,  his  successor  ;  Laferté,  who  decorated 
the  small  volumes  of  the  Due  de  la  Vallière  as  Chamot  covered 
the  large  ones  ;  in  1 766  Chamot  was  royal  binder.  There  was 
also  Pierre  Engerrand,  then,  Biziaux,  an  original,  who  worked 
for  Madame  de  Pompadour  and  Beaumarchais.  Boyet,  or 
Boyer,  worked  (1670-80)  in  the  style  of  Le  Gascon,  with  the 
same  minute  tooling,  but  simpler  in  character.  Duseuil  put  very 
elaborate  and  delicate  tooling  on  his  covers  from  about  1710 
to   1720. 

The  Revolution  destroyed  many  of  the  fine  works  which 
displayed  the  symbols  of  royalty  or  nobility,  and  Mercier  wrote 
certain    wicked    little    poems    against    binding.      Lesné    was    the 


BOOKB/XDI.XG  JX  EXGLAXD.  303 

poet  of  bookbinding,  and  he  invented  the  process  of  bare  limp 
calf  without  boards.  Certainly  from  Grolier  to  Lesne  there 
were  numerous  changes,  so  numerous  that,  in  spite  of  the 
bare  calf,  it  may  be  said  that  the  art  was  nearly  dead.  In 
our  days  it  has  a  little  recovered.  Amateurs  have  found  new 
names,  and  often  artists,  to  patronise  :  Trautz-Bauzonnet,  Cape, 
Duru,  Lortic,  Marius-Michel,  in  France  ;  Bedford,  Rivière 
(whose  tree-calf  bindings  deserve  to  be  mentioned),  Zaehnsdorf 
(who  is  justly  renowned  for  his  excellent  workmanship,  and 
has  himself  written  a  work  on  the  Art  of  Bookbinding),  Pratt, 
etc.,  in  England  ;  Matthews,  Bradstreet,  Smith,  in  the  United 
States  ;  and  many  others.  Unhappily,  fortune  does  not  permit 
evefyone  to  furnish  his  library  luxuriously  ;  the  true  connois- 
seur searches  rather  for  Groliers,  Eves,  and  Le  Gascons, 
than  concerns  himself  about  modern  workmanship.  Whatever 
may  be  its  value,  it  is  only  fit  to  clothe  the  works  of  the 
present  time.  A  book  published  by  Lemerre  and  bound 
by  Petit  is  in  true  character,  but  a  fifteenth  or  sixteenth 
century  book  that  has  passed  under  the  hands  of  Trautz- 
Bauzonnet,  or  Lortic,  will  be  very  much  like  an  ancient  enamel 
in  a  modern  frame  newly  gilt.  An  old  book  in  its  original 
binding,  even  if  shabby,  has  a  certain  charm  and  character 
of  its  own,  which  is  quite  wanting  when  presented  in  a 
modern   dress. 

Bookbinding  in  England  has,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
never  attained  the  artistic  excellence  reached  in  France.  From 
the  fifteenth  century  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  all  the  best 
work  was  executed  by  foreigners  ;  amongst  the  most  note- 
worthy of  these  were  Thomas  Berthelet,  printer  and  binder 
to  Henry  VI  IL  and  Edward  Y  I.,  and  the  unknown  binder  ' 
employed   by    Robert   Dudley,   Earl   of  Leicester.     John  Gibson 


304  The  Book. 

of  Edinburgh,  who  was  appointed  bookbinder  to  James  VI., 
King  of  Scotland,  in  1581  ;  Robert  Barker  and  John  Norton, 
binders  to  James  after  his  accession  to  the  EngHsh  throne  ; 
Samuel  Mearne,  binder  to  Charles  II.;  and  Zuckerman,  were 
all  good  binders,  but  most  of  their  work  is  a  mere  imitation 
of  foreign  designs.  The  one  purely  original  English  binder 
is  Roger  Payne,  who  learnt  his  craft  from  Mr.  Pote,  book- 
seller to  Eton  College,  and  from  about  1767  worked  for  thirty 
years  in  London,  performing  with  his  own  hands  every  stage 
of  the  work,  even  to  cutting  his  own  tools.  The  result  was 
good,  solid  work,  with  perfectly  original  and  often  beautiful 
decoration,  appropriate  to  the  character  of  the  work  itself 
His  favourite  style  was  drooping  lines  of  leaf  ornaments  in 
the  borders  and  geometrical  patterns  produced  by  small  tools. 
After  him  came  C.  Kalthoeber,  a  German,  who  worked  much  in 
the  same  style  ;  Charles  Lewis,  who  was  an  artist  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word,  and,  coming  down  to  our  own  time,  Francis 
Bedford,  who,  never  pretending  to  originality,  copied  the  best 
designs  of  the  French  and  Italian  binders  of  the  Renascence 
and  later  periods.  His  full  calf  books,  with  handsomely  tooled 
backs,  are  models  of  solidity  and  taste  ;  and  his  decorations  on 
the  sides  of  morocco-bound  books  are  always  in  good  taste, 
and  often  of  great  elegance. 

Parallel  with  the  lu.xurious  bindings  with  which  we  have 
been  exclusively  occupied,  there  has  always  been  the  com- 
mercial work,  prepared  in  numbers  for  the  trade.  In  the 
fourteenth,  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  panel  stamps  were 
much  used  for  this  class  of  work.  Later  on  plates  were 
engraved  with  imitations  of  tooled  work,  and  applied  to  the 
sides  by  a  press,  parts  being  sometimes  afterwards  finished  by 
hand   to  make  the  work   appear   to   have   been   executed  by  the 


Modern  Workmaxship.  305 

skill  of  the  craftsman.  The  interfacings  of  Grolier  and  the 
delicate  work  of  the  Eves  and  the  Parisian  binders  of  the 
seventeenth  century  were  imitated  in  this  manner.  If  bindings 
adorned  with  panel  stamps  can  hardly  be  considered  works  of  art, 
they  were  at  least  honest  work,  and  when  the  stamps  were 
well  designed  and  engraved  and  skilfully  applied,  the  effect 
was  often  excellent  ;  but  the  blocking  of  later  times  is  hateful. 
Liturgical  books,  on  which  in  old  times  so  much  loving  care 
was  expended,  are  now  almost  always  bound  in  this  manner, 
their  purchasers  apparently  being  satisfied  so  long  as  the  covers 
are  gorgeously  gilt. 

The  interest  in  Fine  Bindings  seems,  however,  to  be 
reviving,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  number  of  the  following 
important  works  which  have  lately  appeared  on  this  fascinating 
subject,  viz.  : — 

Remarkable   Bindings   in   the   British  Museum,  with  60  monotint  plates,  de- 
scribed by  H.  B.  Wheatley.     4to.     London,  1SS9. 
Manuel  Historique    et    Bibliographique    de   l'Amateur   de   Reliures,    par    Le'on 

Gruel.     With  66  plates,  4to.     Paris,  1887. 
Facsimiles  of  Choice  Examples  of  Historical  and   Artistic  Bookbinding,  by  B. 

Quaritch.     In  parts  of  ten  coloured  plates  each.     Royal  8vo.     London, 

1889. 
La    Reliure    Française   depuis  l'Invention  de  F  Imprimerie  jusqu'à    la   Fin   du 

18''  Siècle,  par  Marius-Michel.     With  22  plates.     4to.     Paris,  1880. 
Les  Reliures  de  l'Art  à  la  Bibliothèque  Nationale,  par  H.  Bouchot.     With  80 

plates.     Royal  8vo.     Paris,  18S8. 
Album  de  Reliures  Artistiques  et  Historiques,  par  le  Bibliophile  Julien.     With 

plates.     4to.     Paris,  1869-72. 
La  Reliure  de  Luxe,  par  L.  Derome.     With  63  plates.     Royal  8vo.     Paris. 
La  Reliure  Moderne  Artistique  et  Fantaisiste,  par  Octave  Uzanne.      With  72 

plates.     Royal  8vo.     Paris. 
La    Reliure  Ancienne,  par   Gustave   Brunet.      With    113   plates.     Royal   Svo. 

Paris. 

20 


306  The  Book. 

The  Art  of  Bookbinding,  by  J.  W.  Zaehnsdorf.     8vo.     London,  1879. 

On  Bookbindings  Ancient  and  Modern,  by  J.  Cundall.     With  28  facs.-plates  of 

bookbinding.     4to.     London,  1881. 
Facsimiles  of  Old  Bookbinding  in  the  Collection  of  James  Gibson  Craig.     With 

27  beautiful  plates  in  chromolith.     Folio.     Edinburgh,  1S82. 
L Ornamentation  des  Reliures  Modernes,   by  Marius  Michel.     With  numerous 

illustrations  and  16  plates  of  reproductions.  8vo.  Paris,  1889. 
Armorial  du  Bibliophile,  by  Joannis  Guigard.  2  vols.  4to.  Paris,  1873. 
Nottvel  Armorial  dit  Bibliophile,  by  Joannis  Guigard.    2  vols.    Svo.    With  2,500 

Armoiries.     Paris,  1S89. 


3o8  The  Book. 

three  hundred  works  constituted  ordinary  collections  ;  the 
powerful  abbeys  found  in  their  staff  the  means  of  enriching 
their  libraries,  and  the  products  of  the  skill  of  the  scribe  and 
the  illuminator  were  objects  of  commerce.  Some  of  the  MSS. 
were  magnificent   in  their  costly  beauty. 

Excepting  kings  and  some  princes,  few  people  possessed  a 
library.  The  great  expense  of  transcription,  the  want  of  facility 
for  procuring  originals,  and  the  enormous  price  of  manuscripts 
left  no  hope  to  bibliophiles  of  moderate  fortune.  Typography, 
on  the  contrary,  having  multiplied  books  and  put  at  relatively 
modest  prices  reproductions  formerly  inaccessible,  private 
collections  commenced.  We  have  had  occasion  to  speak  before 
of  Grolier  and  Maioli  ;  they  were  the  most  illustrious,  but  not 
the  only  ones. 

At  first  a  public  library  was  an  unknown  thing.  There 
was  a  greater  dearth  of  readers  than  of  books,  and  yet 
the  needs  of  students  and  scholars  led  to  devices  in  which 
the  principle  of  the  modern  library  is  involved.  Perhaps 
the  richest  library  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the  Renaissance 
was  that  of  the  King  of  France,  but  it  was  a  private  and 
not  a  public  library.  Since  the  time  of  Jean  le  Bon  the 
acquisitions  had  been  numerous,  and  Gutenberg's  invention 
contributed  to  augment  the  stock  oi  volumes  everywhere. 
Charles  VIII.  and  Louis  XII.  found  or  "conveyed"  in  their 
expeditions  in  Italy,  and  were  able  to  add  to  the  original 
nucleus,  many  rare  editions,  especially  from  the  Sforzas  at 
Pavia,  who  had  in  their  collections  marvels  without  number. 
Brought  together  at  Blois,  under  the  care  of  Jean  de  Labarre, 
the  royal  library  did  not  yet  occupy  a  very  large  space,  in 
spite  of  its  increase.  Under  Charles  V.  the  number  of 
books    was  about   a    thousand;   about    i  soo    or    isio  thev   were 


The  Royal  Lihrary,   Paris.  309 

nearly    doubled,    but    the    printed    books    did    not    number    more 
than  two  hundred. 

So  restricted,  the  royal  library  travelled  with  the  other 
treasures  of  the  Crown;  Francis  I.  transported  it  from  Blois  to 
Fontainebleau,  and  parts  of  it  even  went  with  the  King  to  the 
Italian  wars,  as  related  above.  In  its  new  quarters  the  royal 
collection,  in  spite  of  the  successive  accessions  of  the  books  of 
Jean  d'Angoulême,  grandfather  of  the  King,  and  of  those  of 
the  dukes  of  Orleans,  counted  but  1,781  manuscripts  and  a 
hundred  and  nine  printed  books  on  the  shelves.  The  King, 
ambitious  in  literature  no  less  than  in  arts,  nominated  an 
illustrious  savant,  Guillaume  Budé,  to  the  office  of  keeper  of  his 
library  ;  and  this  office  was  maintained  by  his  successors  until 
the  fall  of  the  royal  power. 

With  Budé  commenced  the  system  of  continuous  acquisitions. 
The  treasury  was  liberally  opened  to  vendors  of  rarities.  At 
this  time  the  books,  placed  upon  their  sides,  one  upon  another, 
gave  no  idea  of  a  modern  library,  with  its  volumes  ranged  on 
end,  having  their  titles  between  the  bands  of  the  back.  In 
speaking  of  Grolier,  we  remarked  that  the  sides  of  a  binding 
alone  had  importance  on  account  of  their  place  on  the  shelves  ; 
it  was   the  same    with   Francis   I. 

Under  Henry  II.  the  Fontainebleau  collection  was  some- 
what pillaged  for  Diana  of  Poitiers,  but,  as  a  corrective  for 
this  dilapidation,  the  King  adopted  a  measure,  since  pre- 
served, which  substituted  for  acquisitions  a  regular  and 
uninterrupted  supply  ;  this  was  the  contribution  by  publishers 
to  the  library  of  one  bound  copy  on  vellum  of  all  the 
works  printed  under  privilege.  The  ordinance  was  made  in 
1556;  the  successors  of  Henry  II.  had  only  this  means  of 
increasing    the    number   of    their    volumes,    with    the    exception 


310  The  Book. 

that    Charles    IX.    expended    a    large     sum    in    the    purchase    of 
Grolier's  collection   of  medals. 

Such  was  the  working  of  the  royal  library  for  about  a 
half-century,  but  the  idea  of  making  it  public  had  not  come. 
Diffused  as  was  then  the  passion  for  books,  it  had  not  yet  been 
popularized  to  the  point  of  being  understood  by  the  public  at 
large.  Amateurs  and  lovers  of  reading  formed  special  collections 
in  their  houses,  at  times  rivalling  that  of  the  King.  Then  the 
fashion  was  no  more  to  lay  the  books  on  their  sides,  but  they 
were  now  ranged  to  allow  room  for  new  acquisitions.  Henry  IV., 
who  had  not  his  great-uncle's  predilection  for  Fontainebleau, 
commanded  the  removal  to  Paris  of  the  books  buried  in  the 
castle.  He  added  to  them  those  of  Catherine  de  Medici 
coming  from  Marshal  Strozzi  ;  and  as  the  college  of  Clermont 
had  become  vacant  by  the  dispersion  of  the  Jesuits,  he  lodged 
the  library  in  1599  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  that  establishment, 
under  the  care  of  Jacques  Auguste  de  Thou,  keeper  of  the 
library. 

We  now  see  the  royal  collection  brought  to  Paris,  which  it 
has  never  quitted  ;  but  before  its  definitive  installation,  before 
it  was  made  public,  it  passed  through  a  century,  during  which 
additions  were  made,  purchases  increased,  and  the  number  of 
manuscripts  and  printed  books  augmented  in  enormous  propor- 
tions. Henry  lY.  desired  to  place  it  near  the  court,  to  avoid 
pillage  and  to  have  the  chief  librarian  near  to  him.  The 
return  of  the  Jesuits  in  1604  upset  the  first  establishment  a 
little  ;  the  college  of  Clermont  was  evacuated  ;  the  books  were 
transported  to  the  Cordeliers  and  distributed  in  rooms  on  the 
ground  and  first  floors,  whence  the  names  of  upper  and  lower 
libraries.  There  was  a  mass  of  volumes  very  little  used,  for 
the  public  did  not  enjoy  them,  and  the  King  held  them  as  his 


The  Mazarixe  Library.  311 

own  ;  but  the  time  was  near  when  the  collection  was  to  take 
a  very  serious  step  under  the  influence  of  the  brothers  Dupuy 
in  1645,  and  afterwards  of  Jerome  Bignon.  Always  shut  up  in 
the  incommodious  chambers  of  the  Cordeliers,  the  library  con- 
tained 5,259  volumes,  manuscript  and  printed,  perhaps  less  than 
some  private  libraries  ;  after  the  Dupuys  it  had  at  least  10,329 
printed  books. 

Mazarin  was  the  first  to  comprehend  the  natural  use  of 
collections  of  books  :  publicity.  His  private  library,  placed 
before  165 1  in  his  magnificent  house  in  the  Rue  Richelieu, 
where  later  the  royal  library  was  definitively  lodged,  was 
opened  to  readers  every  Tuesday,  from  eight  to  eleven  and 
two  to  five.  Dispersed  in  1651,  at  the  fall  of  the  Cardinal,  it 
was  later  reconstituted,  and  in  less  than  ten  years  afterwards 
the  former  minister  was  able  to  open  it  in  its  new  quarters, 
the  College  of  the  Four  Nations,   where  it  is  still. 

While  the  Mazarine  library  was  administering  liberally  to 
the  wants  of  the  public,  that  of  the  King  remained  closely  shut 
up  in  the  rooms  of  the  Cordeliers.  To  remedy  this  state  of 
things,  Colbert  offered  two  houses  in  the  Rue  Vivienne  to  the 
King,  where  the  books  could  find  a  more  convenient  lodging, 
and  allow  room  for  increase.  The  removal  was  made  in  1666. 
The  royal  collection  for  fifty-five  years  was  lodged  only  a  few 
steps  from  its  final  resting-place,  the  Hôtel  de  Nevers.  So 
was  called  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  splendid 
mansion  of  Mazarin,  situated  near  the  Porte  de  Richelieu,  in  the 
street  of  the  same  name,  whence  his  books  had  been  previously 
torn  and  sold  to  all  the  dealers.  Divided  into  two  parts  at 
the  death  of  the  Cardinal  in  1661,  the  palace  fell  to  his 
nephews,  one  part  to  the  Due  de  Mazarin,  the  other  to  the . 
Due  de   Nevers.     At  first  the   King  dreamed,  under  the  advice 


312  The  Book. 

of  Louvois,  of  acquiring  the  land  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Rue  Vivienne  and  of  elevating  a  monument  for  his  library,  for 
the  thought  of  putting  the  Hotel  de  Nevers  to  this  use  had 
not  then  occurred  to  him  ;  but  the  Due  de  IMazarin  having 
alienated  his  part  of  the  palace  in  favour  of  the  Company  of 
thfe  Indies,  Abbé  Bignon,  then  royal  librarian,  understood  the 
advantage  h.e  could  derive  from  the  acquisition. 

Thanks  to  the  administration  of  Colbert  and  the  liberalities 
of  the  King,  the  collection  had  been  augmented  threefold.  At 
the  time  of  the  removal  to  the  Rue  Vivenne,  Nicolas  Clément 
worked  at  the  classifying  and  cataloguing  of  35.000  volumes. 
He  distributed  them  into  methodical  classes,  and  devoted  nine 
years — 1675  to  1684 — to  his  work.  But  this  first  arrangement 
was  soon  insufficient.  Less  than  four  years  after,  he  com- 
menced a  new  inventory  in  twenty-one  volumes,  which  occupied 
thirty  years,  having  been  finished  in  the  course  of  March,  1714. 
This  time  the  numbers  amounted  to  43,000  printed  volumes  ; 
his  twenty-three  principal  divisions,  containing  all  the  letters  of 
the  alphabet,  are  very  nearly  preserved  up  to  our  day.  In 
1697  the  question  of  publishing  this  enormous  work  was  agi- 
tated, and  on  this  point  Clément  had  a  curious  correspondence 
with  a  learned  Dane  named  Frederick  Bostgaard  ;  he  also,  in 
a  celebrated  pamphlet.  Idée  d'une  Nouvelle  Manière  de  dresser 
le  Catalogue  dune  Bibliothèque,  made  some  practical  observa- 
tions. He  resolved  this  arduous  question  in  favour  of  arrange- 
ment of  important  collections  by  difference  of  sizes  ;  but  his 
project  was  not  executed,  although  favoured  from  the  first  by 
Abbé  Bignon. 

As  the  collection  was  not  available  for  workers,  the  work 
of  Clément  had  only  a  relative  importance.  A  councillor  of 
the   Prince   of   Waldeck,    a   German    of  the   name    of    Nemeitz, 


The  National  Library,  Paris.  313 

who  travelled  in  France  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  having  seen  it  in  the  houses  of  the  Rue  Vivienne, 
says  that  the  library  occupied  then  twenty-six  rooms  and  con- 
tained 75,000  volumes  in  all  ;  it  was  shown  readily  to 
visitors,  but  not  to  the  general  public.  Nemeitz  gives  some  other 
curious  particulars  as  to  the  libraries  of  Paris  {Séjour  à  Paris  ■ 
Leyde,  1727,  8vo). 

The  bank  of  Law,  that  had  been  lodged  for  some  time  in 
the  Hotel  de  Nevers,  alienated  by  the  heirs  of  Mazarin,  soon 
disappeared  with  the  ruin  of  his  system.  As  we  have  said 
above,  Bignon  appreciated  the  importance  of  the  neglected 
palace  for  commodiously  lodging  the  royal  collections.  This 
was  in  1721.  The  collection  was  about  to  be  subdivided  into 
four  sections,  or,  as  they  were  then  called  in  the  administrative 
style,  four  distinct  departments  :  manuscripts,  printed  books, 
titles,  and  engraved  plates.  The  keeper  of  the  library  pressed 
the  Regent  to  profit  by  the  occasion,  to  which  he  agreed.  In 
the  month  of  September  the  removal  commenced,  and  from 
the  Rue  Vivienne,  the  royal  library,  the  first  in  the  world  and 
the  most  valuable,  as  Naudé  says,  entered  the  former  palace 
of  the  Cardinal,  which  it  was  never  to  quit  again. 

We  approach  the  epoch  when  the  private  character  of  this 
great  scientific  establishment  was  definitely  to  cease,  and  it  was 
to  open  its  doors  to  the  learned  of  all  countries.  In  1735  it 
was  decided  to  print  the  catalogue  of  some  divisions  only  : 
theology,  canonical  law,  public  law,  and  èe//es  lettres.  This 
resolution  coincided  precisely  with  the  opening  of  the  doors 
which  took  place  in  1737,  in  which  year  appeared  the  first 
volume  of  the  catalogue  comprising  the  sacred  Scriptures.  At 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  royal  library  was  finally 
established  ;    the    printed    books    then    comprised    about    200,000 


314 


The  Book. 


volumes,  and  access  was  had  by  a  staircase  leading  to  six  grand 
saloons,  which  were  surrounded  by  galleries.  From  this  moment 
the  rooms  became  too  small.  At  the  Revolution  the  number  of 
books  had  increased  to  300,000,  and  projects  of  enlargement 
commenced  and  have  continued  to  our  time  ;  but,  in  spite  of 
these  proposals,  the  surface  occupied  by  the  library  has  remained 
the  same  since  the  time  of  Louis  XV.  Enlargements  and 
alterations  have  been  made  year  after  year  on  the  same  ground 
without  much  new  construction.  But  how  the  treasures  have 
been  augmented  to  this  time  !  If  the  printed  books  at  the 
Revolution  represented  a  little  more  than  300,000  volumes, 
to-day  they  exceed  two  millions;  the  prints  number  two  and  a 
half  millions;  the  medals  100,000;  the  manuscripts,  something 
over  90,000. 

If  we  have  thus  brought  the  summary  history  of  the 
National  Library  of  Paris  to  our  days,  it  was  to  avoid  mixing 
it  with  other  matters.  We  have  entered  into  such  detail 
regarding  it  as  is  fitting  to  an  institution  which  is,  next  to  the 
British  Museum,  the  most  important  library  in  the  world.  We 
now  return  to  the  seventeenth  century. 

At  the  time  when  Henry  IV.  carried  from  Fontainebleau  to 
Paris  the  nucleus  of  volumes  that  was  to  have  so  brilliant  a 
destiny,  the  passion  for  books  had  singularly  spread  itself  in 
France.  W'e  have  already'  spoken  of  Mazarin  ;  after  him 
Cardinal  Richelieu  designed  to  open  his  private  collection  to 
the  public,  and  in  his  will  he  manifested  his  clearly  held 
intention.  He  went  further  in  his  last  wishes  :  he  pre- 
scribed the  daily  sweeping  and  dusting  of  the  precious 
collection,  and  its  augmentation  by  a  thousand  livres  tournois 
each  year.  The  great  personages  of  the  time  were  not 
behind  ;     and    Sauvai    says    that    in    the     seventeenth    century 


Public  Libraries.  315 

there  were   1,000    or   1,200  private  libraries  in   Paris,   numbering 
1,700,000  volumes. 

In  the  provinces  there  were  few  public  libraries.  The  com- 
munities and  learned  Societies,  the  Jesuits  and  other  religious 
houses,  and  the  universities  had  collections.  At  Orleans  a 
library  was  opened  for  Germans,  and  the  students  of  that 
country  were  able  to  work  at  their  ease  under  the  supervision 
of  two  librarians. 

At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  number  of  libraries 
had  increased  in  large  proportions  ;  the  amateurs  had  made 
their  influence  felt.  The  Book  was  not  sought  only  for  what 
it  contained,  but  also  for  its  exterior  clothing.  Only  the  great 
libraries  open  to  everybody  remained  eclectic,  and  provided  a 
litde  of  everything.  Besides  the  royal  library,  there  were  in 
Paris  a  great  number  of  other  collections,  many  of  which  the 
revolutionary  storm  upset  or  destroyed.  That  of  St.  Germain 
des  Près  was  burnt  in  1794.  That  of  St.  Geneviève,  founded 
in  1625,  had  benefited  by  celebrated  donations,  among  others 
those  of  the  cardinals  De  Berulle  and  de  la  Rochefoucauld  ;  the 
Arsenal,  created  by  the  Marquis  de  Paulmy,  was  successively 
enriched  by  important  acquisitions,  among  which  was  the  collec- 
tion of  the  Due  de  la  Vallière.  These  collections  still  exist, 
and  are  open  to  the  public,  as  also  are  the  National  Library, 
the  Mazarine,  the  Sorbonne,  the  Museum,  the  School  of  Fine 
Arts,  the  City  of  Paris,  the  Institute,  the  Louvre,  and  the 
several  scientific  faculties. 

The  provinces  have  not  been  behind  in  the  movement. 
Many  of  the  great  cities  contain  a  considerable  number  of 
books  easily  accessible,  among  them  the  libraries  of  Bordeaux 
and  Rouen,  amounting  to  150,000  volumes  ;  Troyes  and 
Besançon,    100,000,  etc.      Few  important  centres  have    less  than 


3i6  The  Book. 

20,000.  These  collections  have  been  generally  founded  by  the 
acquisition  of  the  books  of  those  of  the  religious  establishments 
closed  by  the  Revolution. 

In  our  time  public  libraries  are  augmented  by  the  legal 
deposit,  gifts  of  the  State,  legacies  of  private  persons,  and 
purchases.  The  legal  deposit  in  France  relates  almost  exclu- 
sively to  the  National  Library,  and  proceeds  from  the  measures 
taken  by  Henry  II.  in  1556.  Each  French  printer  has  now 
to  deposit  a  certain  number  of  copies  of  the  works  that  he 
issues,  and  these  volumes  go  to  swell  the  number  of  books 
in  the  Rue  de  Richelieu.  At  the  rate  of  30,000  a  year,  the 
time  is  easily  anticipated  and  very  near  when  the  space  will 
be  found  insufficient.     Some  measures  will   have  to  be  taken. 

Germany,  the  cradle  of  printing,  was  not  favoured  in  the 
beginning.  There  was,  however,  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  in  Wolfenbuttel,  a  little  town  in  the  duchy  of  Bruns- 
wick, a  curious  collection  of  books,  in  a  detached  building. 
The  engraver  Merian  has  preserved  for  us  the  physiognomy 
of  this  library,  which  in  his  time  contained  nearly  200,000 
volumes.  The  rather  low  rooms  were  shelved  all  round  ;  in 
the  middle  were  cases  of  the  height  of  a  man,  also  filled  with 
books  ;  the  readers  helped  themselves,  and  were  seated  for 
working.  The  exterior  of  the  building,  without  being  sump- 
tuous, was  isolated  and  detached.  This  collection  now  possesses 
the  Bible,  glass,  and  inkstand  of  Luther  and  his  portrait  by 
Lucas  Cranach. 

Another  curious  library,  dating  from  1575,  is  that  of  the 
university  of  Leyden.  An  engraving  by  W^oudan  shows  its 
state  in  16 10,  with  its  classifications  and  divisions.  The  books 
were  ranged  in  cases  provided  with  breast-high  desks.  The 
books     were     placed     with     the     edges    in     front,     and    not     as 


The  British  Museum.  317 

now,  and  were  so  attached  that  they  could  only  be  consulted 
in  their  place.  Each  body  of  shelving  contained  a  series  of 
authors  :  Theology,  philosophy,  mathematics,  history,  medicine, 
law,  and  literature.  The  room,  of  square  shape,  was  lighted 
by  windows  right  and  left.  Between  the  bays  were  portraits, 
views  of  cities,  and  maps.  On  the  right,  in  a  shrine,  was 
enclosed  the  legacy  of  Joseph  Scaliger.  Communication  was 
less  liberal  than  at  Wolfenbuttel  ;  the  readers  were  obliged 
to  take  the  books  from  the  shelves  themselves  and  read  them 
standing  before  the  desks. 

In  England  the  opportunity  of  forming  a  great  national 
collection  at  the  period  of  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries 
was  neglected.  Even  later,  when  much  literary  treasure  might 
easily  have  been  secured,  the  suggestions  of  Dee  were  unheeded, 
and  it  was  not  until  the  closing  years  of  Elizabeth  that  the 
first  great  English  library  arose  through  the  generosity  of  Sir 
Thomas  Bodley,  who  in  1597  offered  to  the  library  of  the 
university  the  volumes  collected  by  him  during  his  travels  on 
the  Continent,  whose  value  exceeded  ^io,ooo.  The  first  stone 
of  a  .new  building  was  laid  in  16 10,  but  from  1602  the 
collection  was  open  to  readers  in  a  provisional  locality.  David 
Loggan,  the  engraver,  has  preserved  for  us  interior  views  of  the 
Bodleian  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  rooms  are  disposed 
in  the  form  of  the  letter  H,  with  pavilions  to  east  and  west, 
united  by  a  gallery.  The  books  were  and  are  still  in  the 
body  of  the  library,  placed  against  the  walls,  with  tables  and 
immovable  seats.  The  volumes  were  not  displaced  ;  they  were 
consulted  in  their  own  place.  Each  room  had  two  floors,  with 
access  to  the  second  by  stairs. 

In  London  it  was  Sir  Hans  Sloane  who  had  the  idea  oi 
founding  a  great  collection  by  offering   to  the  State  for  ^"20,000 


3i8  THE  Book. 

his  collection  of  books,  which  was  valued  at  ^50,000.  Created 
in  1753  by  an  Act  of  Parliament,  the  British  Museum,  as  it 
was  named,  was  quickly  augmented  by  many  private  libraries, 
among  which  was  the  library  of  printed  books  and  manu- 
scripts collected  by  the  kings  of  England  from  Henry  \'1I.  to 
William  III.,  which  was  added  in  the  reign  of  George  II.  The 
very  extensive  and  valuable  library  formed  by  George  III., 
and  amounting  to  250,000  volumes,  was  added  by  George  IV. 
The  Harleian  collection  added  7,500  volumes,  and  Sir  Robert 
Cotton's  manuscripts,  which  had  been  purchased  by  the  nation 
in  1700,  served  to  add  to  the  importance  of  the  new  institution. 
To-day  the  printed  books  amount  to  1,300,000,  and  are  only 
surpassed  by  the  National  Library  of  France  as  well  in  number 
of  books  as  in  number  of  readers.  This  immense  collection 
increases  at  a  great  rate,  one  source  being  the  compulsory 
deposit  of  a  copy  of  every  new  book  in  order  to  secure 
copyright.  Donations  and  legacies  are  constantly  being  made, 
and  an  annual  sum  for  purchases  is  voted  by  Parliament.  The 
arrangements  of  the  British  Museum  are  on  a  most  liberal 
scale  for  the  convenience  of  the  readers.  The  general  catalogue, 
extending  to  more  than  7,000  MS.  volumes,  is  now  in  process 
of  printing.  The  British  Museum  is  the  only  one  of  the 
libraries  of  the  first  class  that  has  undertaken  such  a  gigantic 
task. 

Besides  the  copy  deposited  by  publishers  in  the  British 
Museum,  the  law  of  copyright  compels  the  deposit  of  four  other 
copies,  which  go  to  augment  the  collections  of  the  Bodleian 
Library  of  Oxford,  the  University  Library  of  Cambridge,  and 
the  libraries  of  Edinburgh  and  Dublin. 

For  the  Fine  Arts  the  National  Art  Library,  founded  in 
1S52  at  the  South   Kensington  Museum,  ought  to  be  mentioned. 


FoREiGX  Libraries.  319 

which   contains   now   the  most   important   collection  of  Fine   Art 
books  in  the  world. 

If  we  search  among  the  cities  of  Europe  where  establish- 
ments of  this  kind  are  most  honoured,  Berlin  will  take  the  third 
place  with  900,000  printed  books  and  20,000  manuscripts,  pre- 
served in  the  Royal  Library.  The  building,  constructed 
between  1775  and  1 7S0,  owes  its  special  form  to  Frederick  II., 
who  desired  that  it  should  take  the  form  of  a  chest  of  drawers. 
On  the  façade  an  inscription  in  the  Latin  tongue,  suggested  to 
the  king  from  the  Abbé  Terrasson's  Romance  Sc'thos  (1731), 
indicates  that  here  is  a  spiritual  refectory — nutrimentiini  spiritiis. 
Following  come  Munich,  with  Soo,ooo  printed  books  ;  Vienna, 
400,000  ;  Dresden,  300,000  ;  then  the  universities  :  Leipzig, 
whose  library,  founded  in  1409  and  reorganised  in  1830,  contains 
150,000  books  and  2,000  manuscripts  ;  Heidelberg  ;  Gottingen,  etc. 

In  Italy,  Florence  has,  in  the  National  Library,  400,000 
volumes,  which  was  formed  in  1 86 1  by  the  union  of  the  famous 
Magliabecchi  and  the  equally  celebrated  Laurentian,  created  by 
Cosmo  de'  Medici  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
containing  more  than  8,000  manuscripts  of  an  incalculable  value. 
Milan  has  at  the  Brera  a  collection  of  162,000  books  and  50,000 
medals,  and  at  the  Ambrosian,  due  to  Cardinal  Frederick 
Borromeo,    164,000  printed  books  and  8,000  manuscripts. 

Rome  possesses  a  dozen  collections  and  celebrated  deposits. 
The  Vatican,  not  numerous,  is  most  choice  ;  the  importance  of 
its  manuscripts  is  known  to  the  entire  world,  but  only  a  part 
of  the  220,000  printed  books  are  catalogued.  The  Library  of 
Victor  Emmanuel,  formerly  of  the  Jesuits,  amounts  to  about 
360,000  volumes.  At  Venice  the  Biblioteca  Marciana  has 
260,000  volumes  of  printed  books  and  some  thousands  of- 
MSS.  and  documents. 


320  The  Book. 

The  magnificent  educational  establishments  in  the  form  of 
public  libraries  provided  in  the  United  States  deserve  special 
mention.  Nearly  every  city  has  its  public  library,  supported  by 
a  small  tax  ;  and  many  large  libraries  are  wholly  supported 
by  private  munificence.  The  first  to  be  established  was  founded 
in  1732  by  Benjamin  Franklin  in  Philadelphia,  and  still  exists 
as  the  Library  Company  ;  many  important  bequests  have  been 
made  to  it,  the  latest  being  ^200,000  by  Dr.  Richard  Rush. 
The  library  now  numbers  150,000  volumes.  The  Congressional 
Library  of  Washington,  besides  its  annual  income  from  Govern- 
ment, receives  by  deposit  for  copyright  a  copy  of  every  work 
published  in  the  United  States  ;  it  now  has  565,000  volumes. 
There  are  next  in  importance  the  Boston  Library  with  450,000 
and  the  Boston  Athenseum  with  220,000  volumes. 

The  Astor  Library  and  the  Lenox  Library  of  New  York 
were  both  founded  and  endowed  by  the  families  whose  name 
they  bear  ;  the  former  has  223,284  volumes,  the  latter  25,000. 
The  city  of  Chicago  recently  fell  heir  to  the  magnificent  sum 
of  over  one  million  sterling,  bequeathed  by  Mr.  Newberry  for 
the  establishment  of  a  library  of  reference,  and  New  York  was 
benefited  by  the  late  Mr.  Tilden  to  the  extent  of  ^800,000  for 
a  public  library. 

When  we  have  named  the  libraries  of  St.  Petersburg  and 
Moscow  for  Russia,  Stockholm  for  Sweden,  and  the  Escurial  for 
Spain,  we  shall  have  mentioned  very  hastily  the  most  important 
establishments  in  the  world.  For  more  than  four  centuries  the 
love  of  books  has  preserved  and  fortified  itself,  and  increases 
each  day.  If  we  were  to  endeavour  to  approximately  imagine 
the  number  of  printed  books  diffused,  we  should  be  frightened 
at  it.  It  is  by  miles  that  to-day  are  counted  the  shelves  of 
the    National    Library    or    of   the     British    Museum  ;    and    each 


Free  Public  Librak/es.  321 

year  the  production  is  accelerated,  as  is  also  the  number  of 
readers. 

In  conclusion  we  ought  to  mention  the  modern  development 
of  Free  Public  Libraries  in  England,  and  the  popularisation  of 
learning  resulting  from  the  introduction  of  the  Public  Libraries 
Act.  The  Free  Libraries  generally  consist  of  a  lending  depart- 
ment with  a  reference  library,  which  latter,  in  the  case  of  the 
wealthier  institutions,  such  as  those  in  the  great  towns  of 
Liverpool,  Manchester  and  Birmingham,  is  very  important 
indeed,   and  lends  a  special  interest  to   the  collection. 

There  are  also  Subscription,  Collegiate  and  Learned  Society 
Libraries,  all  of  which,  in  addition  to  those  which  we  have 
mentioned,  have  made  the  treasures  of  literature  accessible  to 
the   many,    which  formerly  were   reserved   for  the   few. 


2 1 


The  Art  of  Describixg  axd  Cataloguing  Ixcuxaiwla.  323 

such  first  impressions,  but  also  a  thorough  acquaintance  with 
the  history  of  media;val  printing  in  general.  Doubtless  this 
latter  branch  already  forms  the  subject  of  a  comprehensive 
literature  ;  but  it  is  precisely  this  very  literature,  teeming  as 
it  does  with  all  kinds  of  errors,  that  causes  the  greatest 
embarrassment  to  the  bibliographer,  not  unfrequently  leading 
to  absolutely  false  conclusions.  An  experience  spread  over 
many  years  is  a  fundamental  condition  of  any  really  solid 
performance    in    this    department. 

Antiquarian  lore  of  a  scientific  character  and  instinct  must 
of  course  work  in  all  directions,  and  can  only  incidentally  e.xpect 
to  light  upon  incunabula,  if  only  because  of  their  greater  rarity. 
Still  certain  definite  rules  and  principles  should  be  observed 
in  the  bibliographical  descriptions  which  have  to  be  made 
in  trade  or  library  catalogues  of  such  first  impressions  as  may 
occasionally    come    to    light. 

The  object  of  the  present  chapter  is  to  establish  some 
norma  or  standard,  which  may  be  capable  of  general  application, 
and  of  throwing  as  full  a  light  even  on  apparently  minute 
points,  as  is  required  for  really  important  features  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  incunabula.  The  whole  subject  is  here  treated  entirely 
from  the  practical  standpoint,  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  prove  a 
welcome  aid  both  to  librarian  and  collector. 

In  descriptive  catalogues  of  early  books  two  points  above  all 
others  should  be  attended  to  and  kept  carefully  distinct.  These 
are  the  statements  that  will  have  to  be  made  : — 

{a)  Regarding  the  printed  work  as   such,   that  is,   as  repre- 
senting its  class,  as  a  copy  of  the  edition  ;  and 
{b)  Regarding  the  book  in  question  specially  and  individually. 

It  is  evident  that  the  properties  characteristic  of  the 
pj'iiUed  work    as    such,    {a),    v/ill     be    equally    characteristic    of 


324  The  Book: 

each  and  every  copy  of  the  same  work.  These  are  the  points 
more  lully  detailed  in  the  following  enumeration. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  special  qualities  possessed  by  the 
particular  copy  of  the  work  to  be  catalogued,  are  peculiar  to 
the  said  copy  alone,  occurring  in  no  other,  or  only  in  a  very 
few   still  extant  specimens  of  the  same  issue. 

Before  proceeding  to  describe  an  early  impression,  it  will 
be  well  under  all  circumstances  to  consult  the  subjoined  biblio- 
graphical works,  and  first  ascertain  whether  the  work  in  question 
has  been  previously  described.  Nor  should  a  mere  casual  agree- 
ment of  authorities  be  always  accepted  as  conclusive,  unless 
they  are  found  to  be  fully  applicable  to  the  copy  in  question. 
Slight  differences  may  of  course  occur,  but  only  such  as 
regard  the  number  of  sheets,  or  trifling  variations  in  the  te.xt. 
Should  all  statements  accord,  we  may  then  rest  satisfied  with 
a  brief  summary,  of  which  more  further  on. 

The  most  valuable  bibliographical  aids  for  preparing  cata- 
losfues  of  incunabula  are  the  following  ; — . 

o  o 

Hail!,  L.,  Repertorium  Bibliographicum,  in  quo  libri  omnes  ab  arte  typo- 
graphica  inventa  usque  ad  annum  MD.  typis  express!  .  .  .  recensentur. 
2  vols,  in  4  torn.,  8vo.     Stuttgartias,  1826-38. 

Panzer,  G.  W.,  Annales  Tjpographici  ab  artis  inventse  origine  ad  annum 
MD.  Vols,  i.-v.,  4to.  (Vols,  vi.-xi.  only  contain  works  printed  since 
1501,  hence  need  not  here  be  considered.)     Nurembergœ  1793-97. 

Panzer,  G.  IV.,  Annalen  der  alteren  deutschen  Literatur.  With  supplts. 
Nurnberg  and  Leipzig,  1788 — 1802 

Campbell,  F.  A.  G.,  Annales  de  la  typographie  néerlandaise  au  xv'  siècle 
With   2   suppls.      8vo.     The  Hague,    1874-84. 

Brunei,  J.  Ch.,  Manuel  du  libraire  et  de  l'amateur  de  livres.  6  vols., 
8vo.     Paris,    1860-65. 

Giacssc,  J.  G.  Th.,  Trésor  de  livres  rares  et  précieux  ou  nouveau  diction- 
naire bibliographique.     6  vols,  and  suppl.,  4to.     Dresden,  1859-69. 

Uollrop,  Joli.  Giisl.  Monuments  tj'pogr.  des  Pays-Bas  au  XV"'°  siècle. 
Collection  de  facsimile  d'après  les  originaux  conservés  à  la  Bibl.  Roy. 


The  Art  of  Descrip.ixg  axd  Catalogcixg  Ixcuxabvla.     325 

de  la  Haye  et  ailleurp.  Avec  130  planches  et  i  carte.  XIII  et  138  pp. 
Fol.     La    Haye,    1868. 

Ebot,  F.  A.     Allgem.   bibliograph.   Le.xikon.      2  vols.,  4to.     Lpz.,   1821-30. 

Loiviiifes,  IV.  Th.  The  Bibliographer's  Manual  of  English  Literature,  contain- 
ing an  account  of  books  published  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  since 
the  invention  of  printing,  with  notes  and  prices.  New  edition,  revised 
and  enlarged  by  H.  G.  Bohn.     4  vols.,  8vo.     London,   1864. 

And  numerous  special  Bibliographies,  which  need  not  here  be  mentioned. 

Foremost  stands  Hain's  Repei'toriuvi,  but  for  which,  all  biblio- 
graphical research  in  this  domain  would  be  seriously  hampered. 
Those  articles  which  in  this  work  are  marked  by  an  *  preced- 
ing the  consecutive  numbers,  were  seen  and  described  by  Hain 
himself.  W'ith  extremely  few  exceptions  these  descriptions  are 
made  with  minute  accuracy,  and  may  be  regarded  as  the  most 
trustworthy  of  their  kind.  The  other  articles  are  quotations 
from  other  sources,  which  however  are  not  mentioned.  The  work 
itself,  however,  is  no  library  catalogue,  but  should  rather  be 
described  as  a  theoretical  catalogue  ;  hence  all  particulars  bearing 
on  other  copies  than  those  under  e.xamination  are  omitted. 

Next  in  importance  comes  Panzer's  Annales,  which  also 
offers  valuable  and  welcome  aids,  but  which  should  be  consulted 
with  some  caution.  It  is  especially  defective  in  not  giving 
perfectly  accurate  copies  of  titles,  the  linear  divisions  not  being 
retained,  and  the  abbreviations  being  given  in  full.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  alphabetical  arrangement  according  to  the  place 
of  printing  presents  many  advantages. 

Brunet's  and  Graesse's  large  bibliographical  works  are  very 
incomplete  as  regards  early  books,  although  still  valuable  as 
supplements  to  Hain  and  Panzer. 

Campbell's    Annales    comprises     Netherlandish   works   alone, 
but  for  this  group  it  may  be   described  as  an  e.xcellent  work  of  ■ 
reference,  fulfilling  all  reasonable  requirements. 


326  The  Book. 

The  present  essay  is  intended  not  only  to  guide  professional 
librarians  and  booksellers  in  preparing  systematic  catalogues 
of  incunabula  on  a  uniform  plan,  but  also  to  indicate  the 
right  road  to  tyros  in  this  field.  Hence  divers  matters  will 
have  to  be  touched  upon  with  which  many  must  be  familiar, 
while  other  points  will  be  dealt  with  in  detail  which  may  in 
themselves  seem  trivial.  In  studies  needing  minute  accuracy, 
things  apparently  insignificant  are  often  of  great  importance. 

We  will  now  discuss  more  fully  each  separate  point  in  those 
researches  which  have  to  be  made  with  a  view  to  correct  and 
complete  descriptions  of  incunabula.  Here  the  student  will  find 
many  practical  hints  which  will  enable  him  the  more  easily  to 
grapple  with  certain  technical  and  other  difficulties. 

I.  The  Author's  Name. 

Titles,  or  title  pages  as  now  understood,  do  not,  strictly 
speaking,  occur  in  early  printed  books,  although  there  are  some 
fifteenth-century  books  with  title  pages,  but  they  are  the 
minority.  The  typographers  of  the  fifteenth  century  began 
their  works  just  as  in  mediaeval  manuscripts,  which  start  at 
once  with  the  text  proper,  the  first  words  alone  indicating  the 
contents  of  the  book.  We  often  meet  with  such  expressions 
as  "  Incipit  liber  ..."  or  "  Here  begins  .  .  .  ."  A  preface, 
an  epistle,  a  register,  or  the  like,  very  frequently  precedes  the 
text  itself,  and  here  as  a  rule  will  be  found  the  name  of  the 
author.  Frequently  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  summary  at  the 
beginning  of  the  text. 

But  should  the  beginning  of  the  book  be  searched  in  vain, 
then  the  concluding  page  must  be  consulted  for  title  and  author. 
It  was  in  fact  a  universal  practice  to  introduce  at  the  end 
title,    author,    printing    place,    printer,   and    date  ;    and    such   con- 


Tni.E  OF  THE  Work.  327 

eluding  paragraphs  were  known  by  the  name  of  "Colophon" 
or  "  Rubrum."  The  latter  term  was  due  to  the  fact  that  in 
manuscripts  such  endings  were  sometimes  written  in  red  ink. 
They  were  also,  especially  during  the  first  period,  impressed 
in  red  in  printed  works,  after  the  work  was  finished.  These 
concluding  paragraphs,  however,  are  frequently  absent,  or  else 
are  limited  to  a  few  words,  such  as  ''Finis"  ''Explicit  liher" 
"  Hie  est  Finis,"   "  Here   ends,"  and  so  on. 

When  a  name  has  at  last  been  discovered,  no  time  should 
be  lost  in  consulting  Hain's  Repertorium.  Then  the  title 
of  the  work  will  soon  be  found,  even  though  the  same 
incunabulum  may  not  be  indicated.  The  name  of  the  author 
(always  in  the  nominative  case  and  independently  of  the  form 
in  the  text)  must  then  be  entered  in  such  a  way  that  the 
by-name  or  surname,  by  which  the  author  is  actually  known, 
shall  always  stand  first.  Then  should  follow  the  Christian 
name,  which  it  will  be  best  to  give  in  full,  without  abbreviation. 
Owing  to  the  numerous  homonymous  names  current  in 
mediaeval  times,  it  will  be  further  necessary  to  add  in  brackets 
the  author's  position  or  distinctive  title.  For  instance  : 
Antoninus  [Archiep.  Florent.]  ;  Antonio  S.  de  Padova  ; 
Antonio    Bettini   de   Siena  [Vescovo  di    Fuligno],   etc. 

2.  Title    of   the  Work. 

The  title  of  the  work  will  also  for  the  most  part  be  found 
simultaneously  with  the  name  of  the  author. 

Where  any  of  the  above-mentioned  bibliographical  woiks, 
and  especially  Hain  and  Panzer,  give  a  full  description  of  the 
incunabulum,  including  an  accurate  reproduction  of  the  initial 
and  final  lines  with  all  abbreviations  and  linear  divisions,  it 
will    suffice    to    give   in    full    those    words    alone    that  constitute 


328  The  Book. 

the  title  of  the  work,  according  to  modern  usage  and  ortho- 
graphy. For  instance  :  Augustinus,  S.  Aurel,  De  Civitate 
Dei  libri  xxii.  ;  or,  Breydenbach,  Bern,  de,  Heihge  Reisen, 
etc.  In  this  case  we  may  dispense  with  a  complete  copy  of 
the  initial  and  final  lines,  and  for  all  the  rest  refer  the  reader 
to  Hain  or  Panzer. 

But  where  the  work  has  not  yet  been  accurately  described, 
it  must  here  be  at  once  dealt  with  more  fully,  without 
prejudice  to  the  reproduction  of  the  title,  which  has  to  be 
given  later  on.  For  instance  :  Ailliaco,  Petrus  de,  Tractatus 
de   anima,   editus  a  dno   petro  de   Ailliaco. 

3.   The    Dating. 

By  the  dating  of  an  incunabulum  is  understood  the  indication, 
mostly  contained  in  the  colophon,  of  the  place,  printer  and 
year  of   issue.     The  dating  may  be  ; 

{a)  Complete,  when  all  three  of  these  points  are  in 
evidence  ;  or, 

(3)  Incomplete,  when  one  or  two  of  these  statements  are 
missing  ;  or, 

{/)  The  dating  may  be  absent  altogether. 

In  the  first  case  these  data  (place,  printer,  and  year)  must 
be  briefly  mentioned.  Thus:  Breydenbach,  Bern,  cle,  Heilige 
Reisen.  Augsburg,  Anton  Sorg,  148S.  In  the  second  case 
the  absence  of  one  or  other  of  these  particulars  must  be 
specified,  for  which  purpose  the  following  abbreviations  are 
employed  : — 

1.  If  the  place  alone  be  missing,   >;.  /.   (sine  loco). 

2.  If  the  printer  alone  be  missing,  s.  /.  (sine  typographe). 

3.  If  the  year  alone  be  missing,  s.  a.  (sine  anno). 

4.  If  both  place  and  printer,  s.  a.  et  t.  (sine  anno  et  typographo). 


THE    SIXE.  329 

5.  It"  both   place  and  year,  s.  /.  et.  a.   (sine  loc3  et  anno). 

6.  If  printer  and  year,  .-;.  /.  r/  a.   (sine  typographe  et  anno). 

7.  It'  all,  5.  u.   (sine  nota,   or  absque  uUa  nct/i). 

Now  it  is  the  business  of  bibliographers  to  supply  these 
missing  data.  In  many  cases  the  bibliographical  works  of 
reference  give  the  required  information  ;  but  in  many  cases 
they  fail  to  do  so. 

When  the  data  in  question  have  been  determined,  the  names 
of  place,  printer  and  year  are  to  be  added  in  brackets.  For 
more  easy  reference  round  brackets  (  )  are  recommended  to  be 
used  in  the  first  instance,  square  [  ]  in  the  second.  Thus  : 
Biblia  latina  (  )  [Strassburg,  Joh.    Mentel, 

circa    1463]. 

4.   The  Size. 

The  determination  of  the  size  may  present  difficulties,  inas- 
much as  small  folio  and  quarto,  or  small  quarto  and  octavo, 
may  be  confounded.  But  a  sure  means  of  distinguishing 
between  these  several  forms  is  afforded  by  the  position  of  the 
wire-lines  of  the  paper.  When  held  to  the  light  the  paper 
shows  the  thin  narrow  laid  wires  which  are  divided  by  a 
number  of  straight  lines  standing  wider  apart,  called  chain 
luires  ;  when  the  chain  wires  run  horizontally  the  book  is  a 
quarto,  vertically  a  folio  or  an  octavo.  This  principle  is  simply 
explained  from  the  fact  that  the  mould  used  by  the  old  paper 
makers  was  a  wire  sieve,  in  which  the  vertical  and  thicker  chain 
wires  reappear  in  the  paper.  The  chain  wires  always  running 
from  top  to  bottom,  the  sheet  when  folded  makes  a  folio 
with  straight  lines,  and  when  the  folio  is  folded  again  it  makes 
a  quarto  with  horizontal  lines. 


330  Tue  Bock. 

5.   Detailed    Reproduction   of    Title. 

Should  the  particulars  given  in  Hain  or  Panzer  not  fully 
accord  with  the  printed  work  in  hand,  or  should  the  said  work 
not  be  mentioned  at  all,  then,  besides  the  above-described 
short  statement  of  the  title  to  be  alv/ays  given  for  the 
synoptic  arrangement,  a  complete  copy  must  be  made  both  of 
the  initial  lines  and  of  the  colophon.  Attention  must  be  paid 
to  the  orthography,  the  abbreviations,  the  disposition  of  the 
lines  (these  being  indicated  by  a  vertical  stroke  |  ),  the  over 
and  under-lined  letters,  the  marks  of  abbreviation  (for  instance  a 
reversed  C  0  for  COU,  a  9  fo""  ^'•5>  the  sign  U,  resembling  the 
figure  4,  for  TUM,  I  for  ct,  3  '^'^'^  ^^^%  ^""^  ^o  on),  and  all  must 
be  faithfully  copied.  When  the  catalogue  has  to  be  printed, 
these  signs  must  be  specially  cast,  as  they  are  not  often 
found    in    our    modern    printing    offices. 

To  spell  out  the  abbreviations,  as  French  bibliographers 
are  especially  fond  of  doing,  is  the  one  sure  means  of  making 
"  confusion  worse  confounded."  Let  this  practice  be  there- 
fore carefully  avoided.  Those  who  have  much  to  do  with 
early  books  will  soon  learn  to  decipher  the  abbreviations, 
which  in  fact  present  not  the  slightest  difficulty.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  restoration  of  the  abbreviations  from  the 
reduced  texts  is  often  impossible,  because  they  are  frequently 
used  in  a  perfectly  arbitrary  way.  For  instance,  domini  may 
be  shortened  dni,  or  daini,  or  domJi,  and  such  trivial  dis- 
crepancies may  easily  lead  to  mistakes. 

Obvious  misprints  in  the  text  as  well  as  in  the  date  must 
of  course  be  also  accurately  reproduced  ;  attention  however 
may  as  a  rule  be  drawn  to  such  errors  by  appending  a 
{sic .'),  or    at    least    (!).     The    misprints    are    often    so    incredibly 


Detailed  Reprodvctiox  of  Title.  331 

naive,  that  one  feels  inclined  to  suspect  a  mistake  in  the 
rendering  rather  than  in  the  original.  Here  it  will  suffice  to 
mention  the  glaring  instance  of  the  colophon  in  the  Mayence 
Breviary  of  1457,  where  "spalmorum  (!)  codex"  occurs  instead 
of  "  psalmorum  codex." 

Between  initial  lines  and  colophon  should  be  inserted  :  At 
the  cud,  which  in  manuscript  are  underlined,  and  in  print 
italicised.  When  title  and  final  23aragraph  are  very  lengthy, 
words  or  clauses  not  needed  for  the  understanding  of  the 
context  may  be  omitted  and  indicated  by  dots,  without  how- 
ever changing  aught  in  the  construction.  It  is  also  well  to 
avoid  substituting  dots  for  the  last  words  of  lines,  so  that 
the  linear  division  may  remain  perfectly  clear. 

To  illustrate  the  foregoing  with  an  example,  we  give  here 
the  description  of  Sc/iedeTs  Nuremberg  Chronicle.  This  well- 
known  and  widely-dispersed  early  book,  which  still  frequently 
turns  up,  at  once  presents  certain  difficulties  to  the  tyro. 
No  author's  name  is  to  be  found  either  at  the  besfinningf  or 
in  the  colophon,  and  this  is  true  both  of  the  Latin  and  the 
German  edition.  The  original  Latin  edition,  printed  in  1493  by 
Koberger  in  Nuremberg,  begins  with  an  alphabetical  register; 
but  no  author's  name  can  be  discovered  either  in  it  or  in 
the  initial  lines  of  the  Chronicle  itself  while  the  concluding 
paragraph  is  also  silent  on  the  point.  Nevertheless  the  author 
gives  his  name,  which  occurs  on  p.  266z'.  Now  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  work  is  to  be  made  as  follows  : — 

Schedcl,  Dr.  Hartmau,  Liber  chronicarum.     Nuremberg,  Ant.  Koberger,  1493. 
Large  FoL 
Leaf  i;-.   (woodcut  title)   (R)Egillrum  |  huius  ope-  |  ris  libri  cro-  |  nicaruni 
I  CÛ  figuris  et  ymagi-  |  bus  ab  inicio  mundi  :    |    L.   i — 20,  Register  :   L.  zir  (with  ■ 
Nr.  I)  :  Epitoma  operii  fex  dierû   de   mûdi  fabrica  Prologus    |    L.   2661',  line   23  : 


332  THE    Book. 

Complcto  in  famofiffinia  Nurembergenfi  vrbe  Operi  |  de  hyftorijs  etatum  mundi. 
ac  defcriptione  vrbium  fe-  |  lix  imponitur  finis.  CoUectum  breui  tempore  Auxilio 
docto  I  ris  hartmâni  Schedel.  qua  fieri  potuit  diligentia.  Anno  xpi  |  Millefimo 
quadringentefimo  nonagefimotercio.  die  quarto  |  menfis  lunij.  |  At  the  end,  L.  320^: 
(A)  Deft  nunc  ftudiofe  lector  finis  libri  Cronicarum  per  |  viam  epithomatis  2  bre- 
viarij  compilât!  opus  qdem  |  preclarum  J  a  doctiffimo  quoqz  comparandum. 
Continet  |  ■  .  •  Ad  in  j  tuitû  autem  2  preces  prouidorû  ciuiû  Sebaldi  Schreyer  |  \ 
Sebaftiani  kainermaifler  hunc  libruni  dominus  Antho  |  nius  koberger  Nuremberge 
impreffit.  Adhibitis  tame  vi  |  ris.  .  .  .  Michaele  |  wolgemut  et  wilhelmo  Pleyden- 
wurff.  quaru  folerti  acu-  |  ratiffiniaqr  animadverfione  turn  ciuitatum  turn  illuftrium 
I  virorum  figure  inferte  funt.  Confummatû  autem  duodeci  |  ma  menfis  lulij. 
Anno  falutis  nre.  1493.  |  L.  32 ir:  De  Sarmacia  regione  Europe.  L.  325?',  last 
line  :   Laus  deo. 

6.    The  Collation  .^nd  the   Numi'.er  of  Leaves. 

It  will  not  suffice  simply  to  count  the  leaves  of  the  book 
as  it  stands,  which  would  in  fact  be  quite  useless.  We  must 
also  ascertain  whether  the  work  is  complete.  For  this  purpose 
a  careful  examination  must  be  made  ot  the  collation  of  the 
sheets.  Even  in  the  case  of  bound  books  this  can  be  quite 
easily  done  by  slightly  bending  them  somewhat  further  back 
at  the  places  corresponding  with  the  several  sections  ;  it  can 
then  be  quite  clearly  seen  at  the  upper  or  lower  edge  of 
the  back  whether  all  the  leaves  of  each  sheet  are  perfect. 
These  sheets  naturally  consist  always  of  a  number  of  leaves 
divisible  by  two.  There  are  sections  of  three,  four,  five  or 
six  sheets,  making  six,  eight,  ten  or  twelve  leaves  ;  but  less 
than  three  or  more  than  six  sheets  very  seldom  occur  in  a 
section.  In  one  and  the  same  book,  the  number  of  sheets  to 
the  section  is  usually  the  same.  Very  frequently  there  occurs 
at  the  beginning  or  end  a  blank  leaf,  which  when  forming 
part    of  the    section    is    reckoned   in,   but    must   be    indicated    as 


S/OXArURES,     CATCH-UVKDS,    AM)    PAGINATiOÀ.  333 

such.  Thus  :  316  leaves  [of  which  one  blank].  If  the  number 
of  leaves  in  the  collation  is  odd,  we  may  be  sure  that  a  leaf 
is    missino-. 

But  to  ascertain  whether  any  leaf  is  missing  it  will 
be  necessary  to  see  that  the  te.xt  is  consecutive  at  the  end 
of  one  and  the  beginning  of  the  ne.xt  page.  This  plan 
is  available  in  the  case  of  incunabula  which  bear  neither 
signatures,  catch-words  nor  pagination.  After  ascertaining  that 
the  sheets  are  complete,  the  leaves  must  be  separately  counted, 
in  doing  which  the  pages  must  always  be  completely  turned 
over.  This  will  also  aftbrd  an  opportunity  of  noticing  whether 
any  leaves  happen  to  be  torn,  soiled  or  imperfect.  It  will 
be  well  to  number  each  leaf  with  a  pencil  in  one  corner,  by 
which  it  will  also  be  possible  in  the  description  to  refer  to  any 
particular  leaf  or  leaves.  The  front  is  indicated  with  ;-  [rec/o), 
the  reverse  with  v  [verso),  as  for  instance  on   L.  1 76;'  woodcut. 

If  the  book  is  perfect  it  will  suffice  to  give  the  number 
of  leaves;  thus,  (12S  LI.,  the  last  blank).  If  any  leaves 
be  missing,  the  fact  should  be  indicated  in  this  same  place  ; 
thus,  125  instead  of  127  LI.,  of  which  11  and  the  last 
[blank]  L.  missing.  Should  the  number  of  leaves  not  corre- 
spond with  that  given  for  instance  by  Hain,  this  fact  must 
also  be  stated.  Thus:  130  [not  128]  LI.  ;  or  174  [not  175 
as  stated  by  Hainj,  and  so  on.  Here  also  a  fi.xed  form  of 
expression  should  be  adhered  to  throughout. 

The  test  of  completeness  will  be  greatly  facilitated  when  the 
work   has 

7.  Signatures,  Catch-words,  and  Pagination. 

The  sheets  are  signed,  that  is  to  say,  below  the  text  at 
the    foot    of  the    page    there   occurs   a    letter    which    is    repeated 


334  Tui^^   Book. 

on  each  consecutive  sheet  with  a  continuously  increasing  index 
number  :  A„  A^,  A,,  and  so  on.  Should  a  section  consist,  for 
instance,  of  three  sheets,  the  signature  on  the  first  half  of  the  first 
sheet  will  be  A  ;  on  the  first  half  of  the  second  sheet,  A,  ;  on 
the  first  half  of  the  third  sheet,  A^  ;  on  the  second  half  of  the 
third  sheet,  A^  ;  on  the  second  half  of  the  second  and  first  sheet 
there  will  be  no  signature.  With  sections  consisting  of  four 
sheets  the  signatures  run  to  A.;  of  five  sheets  to  Ag  ;  of  six  sheets 
to  Aj.  But  it  should  be  noticed  at  once  that  the  signature  is  not 
always  present  on  the  second  half  of  sheets  3,  4,  5,  or  6,  but 
that  the  sheets  are  frequently  signed  on  their  first  half  alone. 
Many  incunabula  give  at  the  end  (often  on  a  separate  leaf)  a 
register  containing  the  first  words  of  each  page  (of  the  first 
halves  of  the  sections),  as  well  as  their  signatures. 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  easy  to  collate  a  book  with 
signed  sheets.  The  signatures  run  through  the  alphabet,  U  and 
W  always  omitted,  and  begin  again  with  A  (usually  Aa  or  AA). 
Even  should  the  leaves  be  numbered,  it  is  still  desirable  to 
verify  the  signatures,  as  the  numbering  is  very  often  wrong, 
whereas  in  the  signatures  misprints  are  scarcely  ever  found. 
It  may  happen,  however,  that  the  signatures  are  placed  so  far 
below  the  text  that  they  have  been  cut  away  by  the  binder, 
in  which  case  the  book  may  appear  to  be  without  signatures. 
We  may  give  as  a  case  in  point  Duxs  Joh.  Scotus,  Qnotlibeta 
quœstioniim  :  \'enice,  Alb.  de  Stendal,  1474.  Hain,  6,433,  says 
expressly  without  signatures  ;   Panzer,  III.,  p.    104,  cum  sign. 

In  some  incunabula  we  also  occasionally  come  upon  an 
apparently  different  kind  of  signature.  Instead  of  letters 
numbers  are  used,  so  that,  for  instance,  the  hrst  halt  ot  the 
section  is  numbered  with  i,  2,  3,  4  ;  the  first  half  of  the 
second,    with    5,    6,    7,    8,    etc.      Or  else    instead  of   the  ciphers 


The  Spac/.xg.  335 

continuous  letters,  as,  for  instance,  on  the  first  section  A,  B,  C,  D  ; 
on  the  second,  E,  F,  G,  H,  etc.  ;  and  at  times  other  combina- 
tions. As  an  interesting  example,  we  may  mention  the  following 
Viennese  work  : — 

Gerson,  Joii.,  De  confessione  et  absolutione.  A/  the  end  : 
Impressum  wienne  anno  domini  Mccccl.xxxii.  4to.  This 
work  consists  altogether  of  fourteen  sheets,  of  which  the  first 
eight  form  a  section.  Leaves  1,2,  3,  and  4  bear  the  signatures 
A,  B,  C,  D  ;  the  second  section  consists  of  six  sheets,  of  which 
the  first  halves  are  signed  E,  F,  G.  All  such  deviations  from 
the  usual  system  of  signing  must  be  expressly  specified. 

When  pagination  occurs,  it  must  of  course  be  verified  ;  when 
folio  numbers  are  partly  present,  partly  absent,  both  must  be 
accurately  stated,  as  must  also  be  the  presence  or  absence  of 
catch-words,  that  is,  the  first  word  of  the  next  page  below  the 
text.  Thus  :  212  LI.  sigt.  without  catch-word  and  pagination  ; 
or,  172  LI.  without  sigt.  catch-word  and  pagination;  or,  when 
pagination  alone  is  given,  1 1 2  nos.  LI.  no  sigt.  and  catch- 
word, etc. 

8.  The  Spacing. 

By  spacing  is  understood  the  manner  of  dividing  the  com- 
position. The  lines  may  run  across  the  whole  page  (continuous 
lines),  or  they  may  be  disposed  in  2,  3  or  4  columns.  In  theo- 
logical and  legal  works  it  very  frequently  happens  that  the 
matter  is  so  arranged  that  the  text  proper  appears  enclosed  by 
the  commentary,  the  latter  in  smaller  type,  but  both  arranged 
in  columns.  Thus  :  315  Ls.  sigt.  no  catch-word  and  pagination 
2  col.  text  enclosed  by  the  comment.  Moreover  there  not 
seldom    occur    side-notes,    which    run    down    the    outer    edse    of 

O 


336  The  Book. 

the  leaf,  and  which  indicate  the  substance  of  the  text.  The 
presence  of  these  marginal  notes,  as  they  are  called,  must  be 
indicated   in  all  cases. 

Lastly,  it  must  be  ascertained  whether  the  width  of  the 
columns  (length  of  the  lines)  is  uniform  on  all  the  pages.  Here 
also  there  often  occur  remarkable  discrepancies.  The  above- 
mentioned  Gerson,  De  Coiifessionc,  presents  an  interesting  example 
of  this  point  also.  On  the  first  sheet  the  width  of  the  composition 
is  91  mm  ;  on  sheets  2  to  7  from  loi  to  102  mm;  on  sheet  8 
again  91  mm;  on  sheet  9,  107;  sheet  10,  112;  sheets  11  and 
12,    121  ;  sheet   13,   112;  and   sheet   14,    106   mm. 

9.    The  Numuer  of  Lines. 

Special  importance  attaches  to  the  number  of  lines  in  a 
full  page  of  text.  W'e  start  from  the  assumption  that  the 
lines  are  not  interrupted  by  the  heading  of  chapters,  sections 
or  remarks  (commentaries,  interlinear  versions,  etc.).  In 
the  case  of  type  varying  in  size,  that  of  the  text  proper, 
and  not  that  of  the  commentary  is  alone  considered.  Turn 
over  the  pages  until  you  hare  found  a  full  clear  page  of 
text,  and  then  count  the  lines.  It  may  happen  that  a  work 
with  running  commentary  may  present  not  a  single  page  of 
uninterrupted  text.  In  this  case  the  lines  of  the  commentary 
running  down  the  edge  (not  the  marginal  notes)  are  to  be 
counted,  and  then  it  must  be  expressly  stated  that  the  given 
number  is  that  of  the  commentary,  not  of  the  text.  Thus  : 
315  Ls.  sigt.  no  catch-v/ord  and  pagination  ;  2  cols.  54  lines 
[of  the  commentary].  Nor  should  you  rest  satisfied  with 
counting  one  page,  but  test  several  in  diiTerent  parts  of 
the  book.  The  number  of  lines  even  in  one  and  the  same 
work     is     not     always    alike,     and     many     discrepancies     occur, 


The  Forms  of  Type.  337 

especially  in  the  earlier  issues.  The  number  of  lines  as 
determined  must  be  recorded.  Thus:  315  Ls.  no  sigt.  catch- 
word and  pagination  ;  2  cols.  27  and  28  lines.  The  larger 
or  smaller  number  of  lines  on  a  full  page  of  type  often  deter- 
mines the  age  of  a  printed  work.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  highly 
interesting  in  the  history  of  printing,  that  the  number  of  lines 
increases  with  the  development  of  the  typographic  art.  It  will 
suffice  here  to  refer,  for  instance,  to  the  first  Bibles.  Pfister's 
Bible  has  36  lines  ;  the  Gutenberg  Bible  42  ;  that  of  Fust  and 
Schoeffer  (1462)  48  lines.  This  remark  applies  also  to  the 
number  of  lines  in  the  old  Donatus  editions.  Altogether 
it  is  evident  that  the  number  of  lines  plays  an  important  part 
in  determining  or  identifying  imperfect  incunabula. 

10.    The  Form.s  of  Type. 

The  types  of  incunabula  have  either  a  Gothic  or  a  Roman 
form,  or  else  are  a  combination  of  both  ;  in  which  case  they 
are  called  half  or  semi-Gothic.  From  the  form  of  the  Black- 
letter  or  Gothic  has  been  derived  the  later  "  Swabian,"  and 
the  modern  German  character,  the  "  Fracturschrift,"  as  it  is 
called  from  its  angular,  jagged,  pointed,  broken  forms.  The 
semi-Gothic  consists  of  Roman  capitals  and  small  letters  of 
Gothic  shape.  The  type  used  by  Peter  Schoeffer  in  his  Ci-otiik 
der  Sassen,  Ctiba,  Hortus  saiiiiatis,  Breydenbach's  Reisen, 
has  lost  the  black-letter  or  Gothic  character,  and  should  be 
called    "Swabian." 

II.    Majuscules,   Minuscules,  Abbreviations,   Punctuation. 

Connected  with  the  form  of  the  types  are  the  questions, 
whether   different    kinds  of  type   are   used,   and  if  so  how  many 


338  The  Book. 

kinds  ;  whether  the  initial  letters  (at  the  beginning  of  the 
sentence)  appear  printed  off  with  the  rest,  or  whether  the  space 
was  reserved  to  be  afterwards  filled  in  by  the  "  rubric-writer  ;  " 
to  what  extent  abbreviations  are  employed  ;  whether  several  kinds 
of  orthographic  stops  occur  ;  whether  the  spacing  or  general 
arrangement  of  the  composition  presents  any  peculiar  features. 

Should  a  printed  work  begin  with  a  wood-cut  initial,  or  with 
any  ornamental  majuscule  distinct  from  the  type  in  the  text, 
but  printed  with  the  rest,  and  not  painted  or  sketched  in 
afterwards,  in  the  copy  of  the  title  the  fact  must  be  at  once 
recorded  by  bracketing  all  such  initials.  Thus,  as  already 
indicated  in  SchedeP s  Chronicle  :  (R)Egistrum  ...  or  (A)D 
est  .  .  .  ).  But  when  the  space  has  been  left  free  for 
the  initial  to  be  afterwards  painted  in,  in  the  place  of  this 
initial  we  simply  put  an  empty  bracket,  for  instance,  (  )Egi9trum; 
(  )Dest;  and  this  is  done  even  when  the  initial  in  question 
has  been  de  facto  painted  in  the  copy  of  the  work  to  be 
catalogued. 

Instead  of  the  full  stop  Linhard  Holl  of  Ulm,  for  instance, 
used  little  crosses,  as  did  also  Joh.  Medemblick  of  Cologne 
and  the  Brothers  of  Common  Life  in  Bruxelles  ;  and  Goetz  of 
Cologne  substituted  for  the  dot  a  letter  z,  taken  from  a 
smaller  fount,  while  John  Zainer  of  Ulm  used  in  his  first 
issues  a  full  stop  in  the  form  of  a  little  star,  introducing  it 
according  to  his  own  "sweet  will." 

Frequently  the  punctuation  is  omitted  altogether,  as  in  the 
first  Viennese  work:  Meyger,  Tractatus  distinctioiiuni  14S2. 
Frequently  also  the  lines  are  not  quite  straight,  but  uneven, 
and  of  unequal  length,  or  else  the  register  is  crooked,  the  first 
and  second  forms  do  not  coincide,  and  so  on.  Features  such 
as  these  often  give  a  clue  to  the  age  of  the  printed  work. 


MAJUSCULES,   Mf.XUSCU/.ES,  A/l/lA'ElV.lT/O.yS,   PUXCTUATloX.  339 

Many    letters    have   unusual    forms,    which   point  to  particular 
printing  offices.     We   may   refer   to  John    Mentelin   of  Strasburg 
with    his    "  eccentric    R  ;  "    to    Nic.   Goetz    of   Cologne   with  his 
Gothic  \'  always  set   up  awry  ;  to   Peter   Friedberg  of  Mayence 
with    his    thick     antique     S    introduced     into     the    Gothic    text  ; 
to    George    Huszner    of    Strasburg,     who    used    a     Roman    H 
with    a  boss  on  the  [lower  side  of  the  cross  stroke;    to  Michael 
Reyser    of    Eichstadt    and    later    of    Wiirzburg,    who     used    an 
identical     H,    but    with    the    boss    on    the    upper    side    of    the 
cross-stroke  ;  lastly  to  Gunther  Zainer  of  Augsburg,  who  applied 
similar  bosses  to  his   Roman   H,  I,  L,  M,  N,  and  T.     A  remark- 
able   Gothic    S    with   two   oblique  cross-strokes   distinguishes  the 
types     of     the     Strasburg     printer,     Joh.      Prys,      while    Johann 
Schaffler   of    Ulm  employs    a    reversed  Gothic  S    when  he  runs 
short    of  D.      Heinr.  Ouentel   of  Cologne   scatters  a   thick  half- 
Roinan   D    over    his    Gothic  printed   matter.      In    the  Latin  and 
Greek  works  printed  by  Ch.  Beyamus  and  J.  Glim  of  Savigliano, 
the    d  has    invariably    a    Gothic    character.       The     dotted     i    is 
absent  in  Gering,  Krantz  and   PVeyburger's  first   Paris  issues,  as 
well  as    in    those  printed  by    Berth.    Guldinbeck   in    Rome.     We 
find  this  dot  replaced  by  a  half-crescent  like  a  hood  in  the  works 
issued  by  Alb.   Pfister  of  Bamberg,   and   B.   Gothan  of  Lubeck, 
as  well  as  in  the  first  ?*Iayence  publications.     John  of  Spire,  the 
first  Venetian  printer,  uses  the  stroke  for  the  hyphen   and  ^,  & 
for  the    final    syllable   et,   as  in   /«r&,  //r&,   for  tacet,  licet. 

In  many  printed  works  we  are  struck  by  the  variety  of 
forms  for  one  and  the  same  letter,  which  would  seem  to  point 
to  a  limited  stock  of  type.  Many  offices,  such  as  those  of 
Conn  Zeninger  of  NUrnberg  and  Joh.  Gruninger  of  Stras- 
burg, were  noted  for  the  e.xc'eptional  number  of  misprints  in 
the    works    issued    by    them.      All     this    makes    it    abundantly 


34°  The  Book. 

evident    how    important  is    the    accurate    observation    of    seem- 
ingly trivial  points  in  identifying  incunabula. 

12.    The  Printer's   Inks  and  Printer's  Marks. 

Fust  and  Schoeffer  already  began  to  print  in  two  colours, 
using  even  four  in  the  Psalterium  of  1457.  The  device  was 
employed  for  emphasizing  certain  passages  of  the  text,  chapter 
headings,  initial  and  final  paragraphs  and  the  like.  As  has 
already  been  explained,  a  large  number  of  scribes  and  manu- 
script writers  were  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the  dis- 
covery of  typography,  and  it  may  well  be  imagined  that  those 
early  printers  were  exposed  to  serious  agitation  on  the  part 
of  the  writers'  guilds.  It  is  highly  probable  that  some  kind  of 
compromise  was  arranged,  the  typographers,  for  instance, 
consenting  to  secure  the  writers  some  source  of  income  by 
leaving  the  rubrics  to  be  filled  in  by  them  ;  still  we  can 
readily  understand  that  not  all  printers  would  be  induced  to 
yield  even  this  point.  Hence  many  printed  works  are  found 
provided  by  the  rubric  writers  with  initial  and  final  paragraphs, 
chapter  headings,  initial  letters  and  stops,  while  others  were 
simply  printed  off  in  red  and  black. 

In  others  again  there  occur  at  the  end,  after  the  colophon, 
emblematic  or  symbolic  representations,  which  were  chosen  by 
the  respective  offices  as  trade  or  printers'  marks.  The  book- 
sellers or  publishers  on  their  part  adopted  certain  corresponding 
marks.  Even  so  early  as  the  fifteenth  century  the  printer  of 
a  work  was  not  always,  as  we  mentioned  before,  its  publisher. 
We  often  meet  with  the  intimation  that  such-and-such  a  work 
has  been  printed  by  So-and-so  at  the  charge  of  So-and-so. 
These  circumstances  may  be  mentioned  in  the  general  remarks 
whenever    they    are    not    implied    in    the    detailed    copy    of  the 


The  Artistic  Get-up.  341 

title-page.  But  from  our  standpoint  the  first  consideration 
must  always  be  for  the  printer.  The  points  in  question  may 
be  specified  in  the  following  way:  127  Ls.  sigt.  no  catch-word 
and  pagination,  2  cols.  30  lines  Goth.,  with  woodcut  initials,  red 
and   black  print;   on    L.  1271'  the  printer's  mark. 

A  special  embellishment  much  affected  by  the  Italian  printers 
were  the  so-called  "  literœ  florentes  "  ("flourishes"),  which  were 
first  employed  by  the  Augsburg  typographer  Erhard  Ratdolt 
(at  work  in  Venice  from  1476  till  i486).  These  are  initial 
letters  elegantly  formed  of  floral  scrolls  and  ornaments,  which 
Ratdolt  borrowed  from  the  Italian  manuscripts  and  had  carved 
in  wood.  They  appear  both  in  red  and  black  print.  As  many 
incunabula  owe  their  value  to  these  "  literae  florentes,"  prominence 
should   be  given  to   them   in   descriptive  catalogues. 

13.  The  Artistic  Get-ut. 

Pictorial  decoration  still  plays  the  same  part  as  in  medieval 
times.  Illustrated  works  always  found  more  admirers  and 
purchasers  than  others,  apart  even  from  those  for  the  under- 
standing of  which  illustrations  were  absolutely  indispensable. 
Hence  it  is  incumbent  on  the  compiler  of  catalogues  not  only  to 
indicate  the  kind  of  artistic  embellishment,  but  also  the  number 
of  woodcuts,  initials  (printed),  borderings,  etc.  Where  the  re- 
spective wood  engravers  or  draughtsmen  are  known,  their  names 
and  monograms  must  of  course  also  be  mentioned.  Should  the 
work  present  no  special  interest  as  regards  its  general  get-up 
(initials,  borderings,  etc.),  it  will  be  unnecessary  to  enumerate 
all  the  ornamental  letters  occurring  in  the  text,  the  mere 
mention  of  the  fact  being  in  this  case  quite  sufficient. 

With  many  incunabula  ornamented  with  woodcuts  the  interest 


342  The  Buuk. 

in  the  printed  text  falls  into  the  background,  the  essential  value 
of  the  work  consisting  in  the  illustrations.  In  this  department 
protracted  experience  alone,  combined  with  a  taste  for  such 
things  and  a  natural  appreciation  of  the  beautiful,  can  develop 
the  genuine  connoisseur.  Hence  special  attention  must  be 
given  to  those  incunabula  which  are  adorned  with  wood  or 
metal  engravings.  Let  monograms  and  other  marks  be  studied, 
the  literature  of  the  subject  e.xplored.  or  more  experienced 
persons  consulted.  R.  Muther's  Deutsche  Biichcrilluslration 
dcj'  Gothik  nnd  Friihrenaiisance ,  1460  to  1530,  fol.  (Leipzig, 
1884),  may  be  recommended  as  a  very  valuable  recent  publica- 
tion calculated  to  afford  useful  aid,  especially  to  the  young 
student.  Care,  however,  should  be  taken  to  avoid  basing  on 
mere  conjectures  and  the  like,  positive  statements  or  conclusions, 
which   may  afterwards  prove  to  be  groundless. 

14.     Bir.LIOGRAl'lIICAL    DIRECTIONS. 

The  beginner  would  create  many  difficulties  for  himself  by 
seeking  for  incunabula  in  the  bibliographical  works  of  refer- 
ence above  mentioned.  In  these  works  the  arrangement  of  the 
title  shows  great  diversity,  and  each  system  has  its  own  justifica- 
tion. Thus  Hain  and  Campbell  give  the  authors  in  alphabetical 
order  ;  Panzer  in  the  Annales  the  arrangement  according  to 
localities,  but  in  the  German  Annaleti  the  chronological  order  ; 
while  some  catalogues  of  antiquarians  adopt  that  of  the  typo- 
graphers and  the  period  of  their  activity.  Research  would  be 
greatly  facilitated  by  a  work  comprising  all  four  of  these  systems. 

When  the  title  in  question  has  been  determined  and  found  to 
be  in  complete  agreement  with  the  work  to  be  catalogued,  the 
reference   is  made    in   the  following  way.      In   the  case  of  Hain 


QUALITY   OF    THE    PAPER— PRIXTIXU    UX    VEI.IAM.  343 

and  Campbell,  quote  the  number,  taking  care  not  to  omit  the 
above-mentioned*.  Thus:  Hain  3756;  or,  Hain  *537o.  In 
the  case  of  Panzer  quote  the  number  of  volume  and  page,  thus: 
Panzer,  iii.,  p.  560  ;  or,  Panzer,  Deutsche  Ann.,  p.  ~2,  ;  Panzer, 
Supplement,  p.  15,  etc.,  etc.  But  references  will  also  have  to  be 
made  to  other  bibliographical  works,  Hain  and  Panzer  being  in 
many  respects  defective.  Recent  investigation  has  given  rise  to 
numerous  monographs  on  particular  printing  places,  printers,  etc. 
These  monographs  contain  much  useful  material,  and  conse- 
quently should  be  consulted  in  descriptions  of  incunabula  laying 
claim  to  scientific  value. 

15.     Ou.\LIT\     OF   THE    PaPKR EkITIONS    ON    VeLLUM. 

At  all  times  the  bitterest  enemies,  while  on  the  other  hand 
the  greatest  embellishers,  of  the  book  have  been  the  binders  ! 
They  must  be  reproached  with  incredible  sins  against  good 
taste,  as  well  as  pitiless  inroads  on  the  artistic  equipment. 
With  Vandalic  barbarism  they  have  cut  away  the  most  lovely 
miniatures,  initials,  borders,  woodcuts,  and  not  seldom  even  a 
slice  of  the  te.\t  itself  But  they  were  not  the  only  criminals, 
and  many  "collectors"  of  the  choicest  typographical  treasures 
have  also  deserved  to  be  impaled.  Who  has  not  heard  of  the 
abbot  with  "symmetry"  on  the  brain,  who  ruthlessly  caused  the 
incunabula  of  the  convent  library  to  be  all  bound  of  one  size, 
so  that  the  book-shelves  might  present  a  symmetrical  appear- 
ance ?  Those  that  were  found  to  be  too  big  had  to  be  cut 
down  !  Ne.xt  to  these  foes  the  greatest  havoc  has  been  made 
by  "the  tooth  of  time."  Hence  it  is  always  to  be  regarded  as 
a  rare  chance  when  an  otherwise  well-preserved  incunabulum 
has  also  retained  its  wide  paper  margin  and  rough  edges,  and 
this  point  should  always   be  mentioned.       But   most  precious  of 


344  The  Book. 

all  are  those  incunabula  that  have  remained  uncut,  thou^rh  such 
cDses  are  doubtless  excessively  rare.  The  sheets  seldom  pre- 
serve their  natural  edge,  which,  in  the  case  of  hand-made  paper, 
is  of  course  never  a  straight  line,  and  which,  owing  to  its 
scrubby  appearance,  is  said  to  be  with  rough  edges  or  "bearded" 
{cum  barbis).     All  such   specimens  are  highly  prized. 

Besides  the  paper  edition,  at  most  a  few  copies  were 
struck  off  on  vellum,  and  these,  owing  to  the  small  number 
printed  and  the  high  price  of  the  material,  were  always  very 
costly. 

In  this  connection  a  few  words  may  be  devoted  to  the  water- 
marks, which  have  also  not  unfrequently  considerable  weight  in 
determining  a  printed  work  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  paper 
mills  made  use  of  certain  signs  as  marks  for  the  various  descrip- 
tions of  paper  produced  by  them,  and  these  marks  were 
impressed  on  each  sheet  while  being  manufactured.  The 
number  of  such  marks  is  legion.  Unfortunately  no  systematic 
work  has  yet  appeared  on  the  water-marks  ("filigree")  peculiar 
to  German  papers.  For  France,  an  excellent  work  is  the  Etude 
sur  les  Filigrans  des  Papiers  Employes  en  France  aux  14'  et  15'' 
Siècles,  by  Midou  and  Alatton  (Paris:  1S6S),  and  La  Légende 
Paléographique  du  Papier  de  Coton,  par  C.  M.  Briquet 
(Genève  :  1S84).  The  subject  of  watermarks  has,  however,  been 
incidentally  discussed  by  B.  Hausmann  {Albert  Diirer  s  Copper- 
plates) ;  by  Dr.  Fr.  Wibiral  {Anthony  van  Dyck)  ;  by  Weigel 
and  Zestermann  {Anfcinge  der  Druckerkunst)  ;  by  C.  M.  Briquet 
{Papiers  et  Filigranes  des  Archives  de  Gènes  1 1 54 — 1 700.  Basle  : 
18S8)  ;  and  in  many  earlier  works,  such  as  B.  G.  Fischer's  J'ersuch 
die  Papierzeichen  als  Kennzeichen  der  Alterthumskunde  anzu- 
zuenden  (Niirnberg  :  1084),  as  well  as  sporadically  in  monographs 
and  periodicals  [Gazette  des  Beaux  Arts,  \ols.  ii.-iv.,  viii.  and  ix.), 


Rl7iK/CS,    COLOURLXG,    M/XlArCRES.  345 

and  in  cyclopedias,  as,  for  instance,  the   article   on  Jl'assci'iiiarke 
in  Ebert's  Bibliograpli.  Lexicon. 

Meanwhile  it  will  be  advisable  to  specify  the  kind  of 
watermark  or  watermarks  in  the  case  of  all  undated  and 
hitherto  undescribed  incunabula.  There  is,  however,  amongst 
bibliographers  a  temptation  to  exaggerate  the  use  and  import- 
ance of  watermarks  as  evidence  of  the  date  of  undated  docu- 
ments, as  the  manufacture  of  paper  was  sometimes  post-dated  or 
represents  the  makes  of  many   mills  through  many  years. 

1 6.   RuiiRics,   Colouring,   Miniatures. 

As  already  stated,  the  printer  often  left  a  part  of  his  work 
to  be  completed  by  the  scribe.  In  the  first  years  of  the  new 
invention,  the  typographers  were  fain  to  make  their  products 
resemble  as  closely  as  possible  the  manuscripts  hitherto  in 
vogue.  Every  invention  has  always  been  and  is  still  looked 
upon  with  a  certain  degree  of  suspicion  ;  so  difficult  is  it  to 
break  with  long-standing  usages  to  which  people  have  become 
■endeared.  With  all  the  more  hostility  must  an  invention  have 
been  regarded,  which  was  calculated  to  direct  intellectual  life 
and  work  into  new  channels.  The  view,  as  mentioned  before, 
that  the  first  typographers  issued  their  printed  works  as 
manuscripts,  although  questioned  by  many,  may  nevertheless 
be  accepted  as  prevalent.  The  Psaltcriuin  of  1457,  one  of  the 
masterpieces  of  the  Fust-Schoeffer  press,  can  in  fact  at  the  first 
glance  scarcely  be   distinguished   from  a  manuscript. 

Hence  before  being  exposed  for  sale,  the  first  books  were 
handed  over  to  the  scribe  (Clericus,  Rubricator),  who  filled  in 
the  spaces  reserved  in  the  printing  with  the  required  letters, 
sentences,  headings,  signatures,  etc.,  in  coloured  ink.  This  work, 
we    call    rubricking,    because    usually  executed    in    a    red   [niôer) 


346  Tue  Book. 

colour.  Many  printing  offices  kept  their  own  rubricators,  and 
the  work  was  also  carried  on  in  the  monasteries.  But  it 
absorbed  much  time,  and  could  not  always  be  got  through 
rapidly  enough  to  meet  the  demand  for  the  new^  work,  and  thus 
it  happened  that  non-rubricated  copies  got  into  circulation.  Nor 
is  it  improbable  that  the  price  of  rubricated  and  non-rubricated 
books  varied  ;  many  buyers,  especially  monasteries  which  pos- 
sessed every  facility  for  supplying  the  rubrics  themselves, 
would  in  fact  prefer  the  non-rubricated  copies,  owing  to  their 
lower  price.  At  the  end  of  many  rubricated  incunabula,  we 
often  find  notices  introduced  by  the  scribe  giving  information 
on  the  date,  the  owner,  the  place,  the  price,  and  so  on.  Such 
notes  are  also  called  hand  rubrics  ;  nor  is  it  necessary  specially 
to  dwell  on  the  great  value  these  notes  must  often  have  had, 
and  still  have,  in  determining  or  identifying  undated  incunabula. 

The  process  was  executed  in  divers  ways.  Doubtless  as  a 
rule  the  scribe  was  satisfied  with  filling  in  the  missing  initial 
letters,  stops,  beginning  of  chapter,  sentence  or  verse,  after 
numbering  of  the  pages  and  so  on.  But  we  frequently  come 
upon  old  printed  works  with  initials,  borderings,  and  lastly,  whole 
pictures,  in  fact  miniatures,  all  beautifully  ornamented  in  gold 
and  various  colours.  In  these  incunabula  veritable  works  of 
art  have  often  been  preserved,  which,  thanks  to  their  execution 
and  state  of  preservation,  represent  a  considerable  value.  It 
will  be  the  duty  of  the  compiler  of  the  catalogue  to  describe  the 
manner  and  style  of  these  artistic  embellishments,  to  determine 
the  school  of  art  to  which  the  painting  belongs,  and  where 
needed  to  explain  the  composition. 

In  the  case  of  incunabula  ornamented  with  woodcuts,  it 
should  be  specified  whether  the  woodcuts  are  coloured,  and  if 
so,  to  what  period  the  colouring  should  be  assigned. 


The  HAM)  Rubrics.  347 


17.  The  Hand   Rur.Rics. 

It  has  already  been  stated  in  dealing  with  the  rubrics,  that 
the  notices  made  by  the  rubricators  are  deserving  of  attention. 
But  we  occasionally  meet  with  notes  by  another  contemporary 
or  later  hand,  the  intrinsic  value  of  which  as  bearing  on  the 
subject  under  discussion  will  have  to  be  tested.  Hand  rubrics 
of  this  class  often  give  useful  information  regarding  the  former 
owner  of  the   work,   its  price,  date  and  place. 

18.   Detailed  Description  oe  the  Bindinc. 

Bindings  remarkable  for  their  artistic  execution,  or  other- 
wise presenting  features  of  historical  interest,  will  require  a 
more  detailed  description.  Many  bear,  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
chapter  on  Bindings,  on  the  outside  fine  impressions  of  family 
arms,  portraits,  dates,  mottoes,  etc.,  all  of  which  are  to  be 
mentioned  according  to  their  importance.  Extant  book  plates 
[ex  libris),  occurring  mostly  on  the  inside  of  the  front  cover, 
library  stamps  and  similar  indications,  should  be  noted.  For 
bindings  of  French  origin,  most  valuable  information  is  given 
in  J.  Guigard's  excellent  work,  Anuorial  du  Bibliophile,  2  tom. 
(Paris:  1S70  73). 

But  our  attention  should  not  be  exclusively  devoted  to  the 
beauty  of  the  binding,  for  there  are  other  standpoints  from 
which  old  bindino-s  have  to  be  considered.  And  first  and  fore- 
most  there  is  the  age,  the  approximate  determination  of  which 
is,  however,  a  question  of  experience.  In  the  case  of  undated 
works,  the  source  and  origin  of  the  binding  often  present 
numerous  clues   for  their  identification.      In  general   it  must  be 


348  THE  Book. 

assumed  that  during  the  fifteenth  century  scarcely  any  except 
bound  books  were  exposed  for  sale.  The  modern  intermediate 
process  of  stitching  in  wrappers  was  scarcely  convenient,  if  only 
because  of  the  very  bulk  of  the  incunabula.  Smaller  issues 
alone  in  4to  or  Svo,  and  then  only  when  limited  in  size  to  a 
single  sheet,  can  have  been  disposed  of  in  the  stitched  form, 
and  even  these  were  doubtless  protected  by  stout  wrappers. 
But  here  also  the  monastic  establishments  may  have  made  an 
exception  to  the  general  rule.  To  these  places  the  books  were 
presumably  consigned  in  crudo,  that  is,  in  the  rough  state,  or 
in  sheets,  for  one  or  more  of  the  inmates  would  doubtless  be 
skilled  in  the  bookbinder's  art. 

It  may  accordingly  be  assumed  that  the  original  bindings  of 
incunabula  date  from  the  time  of  their  issue.  In  the  case  of 
collective  volumes  v/hose  contents  date  from  the  period,  we  may 
without  risk  of  error  take  it  for  granted  that  the  dated  and 
undated  printed  works  forming  part  of  the  volume  all  belong  to 
about  the  same  period.  In  such  cases  we  have  often  at  hand 
the  means  of  forming  an  estimate  of  the  date  of  a  work.  In 
the  same  way  the  character  (style)  of  the  binding  will  often 
afford  a  clue  to  the  country,  and  even  to  the  very  town,  where 
the  work  has  been  printed. 

Besides  its  age,  we  are  also  interested  in  the  material  of  the 
binding.  Incunabula  were  mostly  bound  in  wood,  which  was 
entirely  or  half  covered  with  leather,  hogskin,  or  parchment.  To 
attach  the  cover  to  the  book  itself,  strips  of  parchment  were  used, 
and  for  this  purpose  were  generally  utilized  useless  or  superfluous 
manuscripts,  Donatus,  Almanacks,  letters  of  indulgence,  stock 
inventories,  etc.  This  explains  how  it  happens  that  in  taking 
old  bindings  to  pieces,  many  a  valuable  find  has  been  and  may 
still  be  made.      But  in  saying  this,  we  do  not  of  course  recom- 


CoxDiTiox  AXD  State  OF  the  Copy.  349 

mend  the  wholesale  destruction  of  old  bindings  with  the  probable 
result  of  finding  nothing  after  all. 

But  on  this  point  a  few  remarks  may  be  found  useful. 
Slips  pasted  to  the  insides  of  the  covers,  or  even  used  as 
fly-leaves,  have  already  yielded  many  treasures,  such  as  leaflets, 
woodcuts,  enamels,  presentations,  almanacks,  playing-cards. 
We  may  refer  to  the  first  dated  woodcut,  "  The  St. 
Christopher"  of  1423,  mentioned  in  the  first  part  of  this 
work,  which  was  discovered  by  the  bibliographer  Heinecken 
on  the  inside  of  a  cover  (the  Laiis  Virginis,  a  manuscript 
of  141 7)  in  the  library  of  the  Carthusian  monastery  at 
Buxheim.  Unfortunately  the  days  of  such  discoveries  are 
well-nigh  over  ;  there  are  already  too  many  vigilant  eyes 
about.  Still  w'e  would  recommend  bindings  in  boards  to  be 
always  carefully  examined,  even  when  more  recent  than  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  old  boards  were  mostly  prepared  by 
pasting  together  damaged  sheets,  many  materials  being  thus 
used  up  which  would  at  present   possess  some  historic  value. 

Lastly,  attention  should  be  directed  to  the  clasps,  corner- 
pieces,  hasps,  fragments  of  chains,  etc.,  as  valuable  specimens 
of  the  mediaeval  mechanical  arts  have  often  been  preserved  in 
such  objects.  It  may  be  mentioned  that  in  many  libraries 
of  the  Middle  Ages  the  books  were  secured  with  chains,  a 
practice  which  naturally  disappeared  with  the  spread  of  typo- 
graphy and  the  consequent  increased  facilities  for  procuring 
books. 

19.   Condition  and  State  of  the  Copy. 

What  is  understood  by  the  good  condition  of  an  early 
printed  work  will  scarcely  need  any  detailed  explanation.  In 
the     preparation     especially    of    sale     catalogues     it    should     be 


350  Til  F.   Book. 

conscientiously  stated  whether  and  to  what  extent  there  may 
be  damp  or  water  stains  ;  how  far  the  state  of  the  book  may 
have  been  affected  by  any  other  outward  influences  ;  whether 
there  are  any  leaves  either  torn  or  partly  or  altogether 
abstracted,  or  whether  the  book  has  suffered  injury  of  any 
other  kind.  In  the  case  of  incunabula  with  woodcuts,  the 
condition  of  the  impression  should  be  stated, — whether,  for 
instance,  any  colouring  has  been  attempted  by  an  unskilled 
hand,    etc. 

20.   Rakk  CoriES  ;  Editio  Prixceps  ;   Price. 

The  rareness  or  frequent  occurrence  of  an  incunabulum  will 
naturally  depend  in  general  on  its  actual  supply  and  demand. 
Statements  of  this  sort  should  be  made  with  caution.  In 
many  countries  certain  incunabula  are  frequent,  which  elsewhere 
are  considered  rare.  Here,  again,  long  years  of  experience, 
with  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  markets  of  the  world,  can 
alone    secure  correct    information. 

The  case  is  somewhat  different  when  we  have  to  ascertain 
whether  a  gi\-en  incunabulum  is  the  first  edition  or  not  of 
the  work  in  question.  This  is  a  fact  which  must  be  decided 
by    consulting    the    literature    bearing    on    the    subject. 

Regarding  the  price  which  the  bookseller  expects  for  his 
copies  of  incunabula,  no  definite  rules  can  be  laid  down. 
Here  it  is  impossible  to  give  trade  prices  in  the  modern 
sense  of  the  term,  nor  even  approximate  current  prices. 
Apparently  the  only  course  open  to  the  beginner  is  to  glean 
all  the  information  he  can  bv  sedulous  consultation  of  English 
and  Foreign  sale  catalogues,  the  catalogues  of  the  leading 
dealers,  or  by  referring  to  the  Book  Prices  Citririit,  published 
by  Elliot    Stock.     One    and    the    same    book   may   bring    totally 


Historical  axd  Literary  Notices.  351 

different  prices  according  to  tlie  general  appearance  and  condition 
of  the  copies  offered  for  sale,  and  the  library  it  comes  from.  In 
Brunet's  and  Graesse's  large  bibliographical  works  the  prices 
realized  at  famous  sales  or  demanded  by  antiquarians  of  repute 
are  quoted  ;    but   such   figures  are  nowadays  quite  illusory. 

21.     HiSTOUICAL    AM)     LiTERARV     NoTICES. 

A  catalogue  of  incunabula,  whether  prepared  by  antiquarians 
or  for  sale  purposes,  will  acquire  the  greater  permanent  value 
the  richer  it  is  on  the  one  hand  in  descriptions  of  the  printed 
works,  on  the  other  in  notices  bearing  on  such  works.  We 
will  here  refer  only  to  the  catalogues  of  Bernhard  Ouaritch, 
London,  and  Albert  Cohn,  Berlin,  which  are  at  present  eagerly 
collected  by  all  book-lovers  and  librarians,  precisely  because 
they    present   such    varied    bibliographical    explanations. 

Everything  known  to  the  compiler  himself  of  the  catalogue 
regarding  the  contents,  the  author,  the  printer,  the  work,  or 
the  given  specimen,  should  be  faithfully  recorded.  The  cul- 
tured antiquarian  should  not  shirk  the  slight  e.\tra  expense 
which  may  be  entailed  by  the  somewhat  richer  contents  of  the 
catalogue,  for  which  a  permanent  value  may  be  thus  secured 
even  long  after  the  stock  has  been  disposed  of.  But  in  all 
cases  let  the  fundamental  principle  be  scrupulously  adhered  to 
of  stating  only  what  is  certainly  known  and  true,  and  can 
at  any  time  be  verified.  Let  all  vagueness  and  ambiguity  be 
avoided,  and   let  truth  alone  be  still  your  watchword. 


THE    METHOD    OF    COLLECTING. 


O  early  as  the  seventeenth  century  the  posses- 
sion of  incunabula,  that  is,  of  works  dating 
from  the  decades  immediately  following  the 
invention  of  the  typographic  art,  was  highly 
valued  by  all  important  libraries  and  amateurs. 
The  fact  is  explained  on  the  one  hand  by  the  comparative 
scarcity  of  such  works,  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  which  have 
perished  during  the  wars  and  civil  strife  ;  on  the  other  by 
the  consideration  that  these  venerable  monuments  from  the 
first  years  of  an  invention  affecting  the  whole  world  possess 
a  high  historical  and  antiquarian  interest  and  fascination  which 
cannot  but  be  more  and  more  recognised  with  the  increasing 
importance  of  the  art  itself. 

Nevertheless  it  was  long  before  any  steps  were  taken  to 
systematically  arrange  these  treasures,  to  determine  undated 
issues  by  all  the  resources  of  comparative  bibliography, — in  a 
word,   to  critically  study  the  still  e.xtant  incunabula. 

At  first  sight  it  might  seem  incumbent  on  us  first  of  all 
to  come  to  a  clear  understanding  on  the  temporal  limitation 
of  this  term  "  incunabulum."  But  the  following  inquiry  appears 
so  intimately  bound  up  with  the  essence  of  the  subject,  that 
for  the  present  purpose  it  becomes  a  matter  of  indifference 
whether  we  regard  as  incunabula  the  works  of  the  fifteenth 
century     alone,     or    with     former     bibliographers    include    those 


The  MF.riioi)  of  Collectixg.  353 

issued  before  1520,  or  even  before  1535.  But  in  any  case 
both  extrinsic  and  intrinsic  reasons  suggest  that  the  term  be 
limited  to  the  year  1500,  with  which  both  the  century  of  the 
invention  and  the  infancy  of  the  art  itself  were  brought  to  a 
close. 

The    collecting   of  incunabula  may  from   the    very  nature  of 
the  case  be  viewed  from  the  most  diverse  standpoints. 

But  even  an  absolutely  unsystematic  collection,  that  is,  the 
acquisition  of  the  greatest  possible  number  of  incunabula, 
without  regard  to  all  the  other  points  to  be  mentioned  further 
on,  need  by  no  means  exclude  a  systematic  arrangement  and 
cataloguing  of  all  the  works  thus  brought  together.  At  the 
same  time,  such  a  method  of  collecting  cannot  be  recommended 
even  in  the  case  of  the  exceptional  pecuniary  resources  at 
the  command  of  the  great  public  libraries  and  amateur 
millionaires.  For  with  such  a  method  it  becomes  a  pure  matter 
of  chance  whether  the  collection  acquire  any  considerable 
completeness  in  any  given  direction,  or  whether  the  whole 
shall  ever  possess  any  great  bibliographical  value.  It  cannot 
however  be  denied  that  this  plan,  however  irrational  it  may 
otherwise  appear,  is  so  far  the  most  economical  that  by  its 
means  a  large  collection  of  incunabula  may  be  most  rapidly 
and  cheaply  brought  together. 

But  this  method,  if  it  at  all  deserves  to  be  so  described, 
must  be  absolutely  set  aside  in  the  case  of  small  and  average 
collections.  Whoever  with  rather  limited  means  sets  about 
scraping  together  the  largest  possible  number  of  incunlabula 
at  random,  without  troubling  himself  about  their  origin,  rarity, 
contents  and  so  forth,  will  not  acquire  a  real  library  of  early 
works,  but  merely  a  wilderness  of  musty  old  scholastic  books 
mainly  of  no   bibliographical  value.     This    at    least    will    be    the 

23 


354  THE   BOOK. 

result,  unless  he  should  happen  to  be  favoured  by  such  a  run 
of  lucky  hits  as  are  daily  becoming  more  improbable.  The 
reason  is  because  by  pursuing  such  a  course  pretty  well  every- 
thing turns  on  the  question  of  cheapness,  which  by  no  means 
excludes  relative  excessive  prices. 

As  in  other  domains,  here  also  is  applicable  the  maxim  : 
Quality,  not  quantity. 

It  follows  that  a  certain  limit  must  be  absolutely  assigned 
to  the  extent  of  the  collection. 

In  coimection  with  such  a  limitation  there  must  at  the  same 
time  be  adopted  for  the  several  cases  a  corresponding  system 
of  fitting  lip,  arranging,  enlarging,  and  cataloguing  a  really 
genuine  library  of  incunabula. 

In  the  following  remarks  it  will  be  our  endeavour  to 
establish  the  principles  which  seem  to  us  applicable  in  all  such 
cases.  Our  treatise  naturally  makes  no  claim  to  completeness, 
es  here  the  broad  features  of  the  subject  can  alone  be  touched 
upon,  without  however  excluding  the  subdivisions  of  particular 
classes,  which  may  form  the  material  of  numerous  special 
collections.  Nor  do  we  pretend  to  give  any  opinion  as  to 
the  most  desirable  standpoints  to  be  kept  in  view  in  making 
collections.  This  must  depend  on  the  one  hand  on  the 
preferences  and  previous  culture  of  the  individual  collector,  on 
the  other  on  the  extent  of  his  available  means,  points  on  which 
it  would  be  absurd  to  lay  down  any  general  laws.  In  these 
things  there  can  be  no  common  standard  applicable  to  all  ! 
Only  we  would  venture  to  point  out  that  the  various  methods 
of  collecting  give  occasion  to  all  sorts  of  combinations,  and 
that  in  fact  for  many  of  these  methods  it  seems  scarcely 
advisable  absolutely  to  exclude  some  such  combination. 

It    might    also    be     pointed    out    that    the    features    to    be 


Dated  or   I'x dated   Works.  355 

developed  in  special  cases  should  also  be  kept  in  view  in  the 
arrangement,  cataloguing  and  completing  of  general  libraries  of 
incunabula,  nay,  that  some  of  these  principles  cannot  be  at 
all  overlooked  in  any  rational  method  of  cataloguing. 

The  collection  of  incunabula  may  be  divided  into  the 
following  classes,  and  based  upon  the  collection  of  : 

I.    Dated  or  UNnATEn  Works. 

Till  about  the  year  14S0  works  either  not  at  all  or  only 
imperfectly  dated  were  far  more  numerous  than  those  which 
gave  the  printing-place,  printer  and  year  of  issue.  Especially 
during  the  first  years  after  the  invention  the  names  of  place 
and  printer  were  frequently   omitted. 

Absolutely  undated  works  we  call  those  which  give  neither 
place,  printer  nor  year  ;  imperfectly  dated,  those  which  give 
at  least  one  of  these  particulars.  Here  occur  the  most  diverse 
combinations,  as  mentioned  in  the  previous  chapter,  some  very 
frequently.  Such  are  :  {a)  works  giving  printer  and  year,  but 
no  place  ;  {b)  works  with  printer's  name,  but  without  place  or 
year  ;  {c)  works  without  year,  but  with  place  and  printer  ;  id) 
works  with  place  alone  ;  (r)  printer  alone  ;  (/)  year  alone.  Of 
most  frequent  occurrence  are  the  forms  under  b,  c,  and  f. 

Works  fully  dated  so  far  as  in  general  to  leave  no  doubt 
regarding  their  origin  (exceptions  however  occur  even  here, 
as  in  pirated  editions)  take  on  the  whole  a  higher  place  as 
bibliographical  documents  than  those  altogether  or  partly  un- 
dated. But  here  if  anywhere  is  applicable  the  saying,  "  No 
rule  without  an  exception."  The  very  finest  treasures  of  this 
sort  are  undated,  whereas  hundreds  of  very  inferior  worth 
display  a  full  date. 

Of    many     printers    we     possess     scarcely    any    dated,    or    at 


356  The  Book. 

least  any  fully  dated  works.  Hence  a  library  excluding  un- 
dated, or  at  all  events  incompletely  dated  works,  easily 
acquires  a  certain  one-sided  character,  without  thereby  neces- 
sarily gaining  in  material  value. 

Apart  from  this  point,  modern  science  presents  so  many 
aids  for  the  absolute  identification  of  undated  or  imperfectly 
dated  works,  that  there  is  no  intrinsic  justification  for  a 
systematic    under-estimation   of   such  works. 

The  further  question  arises,  how  should  the  collector  act  in 
the  case  of  such  undated  works  as  cannot  be  identified, 
or  identified  beyond  all  doubt .^  In  principle  such  works  should 
be  excluded  by  those  bibliophiles  who  from  the  character  of 
their  collection  must  attach  importance  to  the  undoubted 
determination  of  the  origin  of  each  .printed  work,  and  who 
have  neither  time  nor  means  themselves  to  remove  all  doubts  on 
these  heads.  But  for  large  libraries  such  a  limitation  would  be 
altogether  misplaced  ;  for  the  accurate  investigation  of  undated 
incunabula   has  already  led  to  the  most  une.xpected  results. 

2.  Works  in    Particul.\r   Languages. 

By  far  the  greater  number  of  all  incunabula  are  in  the 
Latin  language.  From  this  fact  alone  it  at  once  follows  that 
early  printed  works  in  all  modern  languages  must  be  more 
or  less  rare.  Hence  collectors  excludino:  Latin  incunabula  will 
obviously  be  restricted  to  those  in  their  own  mother-tongue, 
or  else  in  such  other  modern  languages  as  take  a  prominent 
position  in  a  geographical,  historical  or  linguistic  sense.  As 
a  rule  English,  French,  German,  Italian,  or  Spanish  incunabula 
are  only  to  be  procured  with  such  difficulty,  and  on  such 
unfavourable  conditions,  that  with  relatively  limited  means  it 
would  be  beside  the  purpose  to   think  of  acquiring  them. 


Works  from  Particular  Covxtries.  357 

;,.  Works  from    Particular  Countries. 

As  already  pointed  out,  in  all  civilised  lands  far  more  was 
printed  in  Latin  than  in  the  vernacular,  a  fact  that  can  cause 
no  surprise  considering  the  state  of  science  and  letters,  as  well 
as  the  slight  development  of  the  modern  European  languages 
at  that  time.  Thus  German,  for  instance,  is  represented  bv 
scarcely  one-eighth  of  the  books  printed  in  Germany  before 
1500.  On  the  other  hand  it  not  unfrequently  happened  that 
German  books  were  printed  abroad  by  German  printers,  by 
whom  the  young  art  was  rapidly  spread  throughout  other 
lands. 

Hence  collections  of  incunabula  from  any  particular  countries 
can  by  no  means  consist  exclusively  of  works  in  the  respective 
languages.  They  should  in  fact  rather  e.xclude  such  works,  as 
even  so  the  restriction  to  the  Latin  language  will  still  leave  a 
very  wide   field   to   the   collector's   activity. 

By  far  the  relatively  largest  portion  of  all  incunabula 
belong  to  Italy,  where  the  art  was  early  developed,  and  more 
particularly  to  Rome  and  Venice,  whose  incunabula  alone  would 
form  a  large  library.  The  result  is  a  comparative  cheapness 
of  most  incunabula  printed  in  Italy,  and  especially  in  Venice,  the 
more  so  that  during  the  last  twenty  years  many  of  them  have 
been  thrown  on  the  market  by  the  sequestration  of  the 
Italian  monastic  estates  and  the  dispersion  of  private  collections. 

Hence  those  who  may  not  have  previously  limited  their 
operations  to  some  other  particular  region,  will  as  a  rule  find 
themselves  the  owners  of  a  preponderating  number  of  Italian 
incunabula. 

But  rational  collectors,  especially  when  not  guided  by  the 
question   of  quality   as   is   usually    the  case    in    this   domain,    will 


358  THE  Book. 

probably  soon  discover  that  it  is  better  to  secure  a  relatively 
rich  collection  from  a  more  or  less  restricted  field,  than  to 
possess  a  correspondingly  smaller  number  of  specimens  from 
several  different  countries.  All  alike  aim  at  the  greatest 
possible  completeness  within  the  region  to  which  they  have 
chosen   to  confine   themselves. 

In  the  case  of  such  restricted  collections  the  first  con- 
sideration will  naturally  be  for  the  collector's  native  land, 
whether  this  expression  be  taken  in  a  narrower  or  a  wider 
sense,  as  for  instance  according  to  the  political  frontiers  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  or  of  the  jsresent  time.  For  such  lands  how- 
ever as  can  show  but  few  incunabula,  such  a  voluntary  limitation 
will  not  always  be  found  convenient.  In  this  case  specimens 
from  rxher  fields  will  doubtless  be  also  admitted.  For  the 
rest  incunabula  from  Germany,  as  the  home  of  the  invention 
of  printing,  will  always  possess  a  paramount  interest  even  for 
foreigners,  especially  if  they  are  anxious  to  secure  copies  from 
the  oldest   places   where   the  art  was  practised. 

4.  Works    from    Particular    Periods. 

We  have  already  pointed  out  that  from  the  material  stand- 
point it  is  difficult  to  assign  definite  temporal  limits  to  the 
term  "  incunabula."  Hence  it  must  be  left  to  each  individual 
collector  to  decide  on  the  period  to  which  he  will  extend  its 
use,  and  also  whether  he  will  limit  his  collection  to  any  and 
what  particular  year  within  that  period.  There  is  undoubtedly 
a  certain  justification  for  including  on  principle  those  works 
alone  that  fall  within  a  given  period  not  far  removed  from 
the  date  of  the  invention. 

Other  temporal  limitations  might  also  be  suggested  ;  these 
however    would    presuppose    an    arrangement    of    the    collection 


IVORKS  BELOXGING  TO  A  PARTICULAR  BRA.XCH  OF  LITERATURE.  359 

according  to  place.  Such  a  combination  of  territorial  and 
temporal  standpoints  leads,  for  instance,  to  a  collection  limited 
to  places  where  the  art  was  introduced  before  a  given  year, 
or,  say,  to  the  ten,  fifteen,  twenty,  etc.,  earliest  places,  or  else 
to  the  oldest  places  of  a  given  country,  but  within  each  of 
these  places  down  to  the  year  1500.  Such  combinations  are 
historically  so  far  justified  that  those  places  form  in  a  measure 
the  landmarks  in  the  victorious  career  of  this  far-reaching 
invention. 

Considerations  of  space  and  economy  may  under  certain 
circumstances  render  it  advisable  to  restrict  the  collection 
from  more  important  places  to  works  comprised  within  a 
certain   date. 

5.    Works    belonging   to   a    Particular    Branch   of 

Literature. 

The  great  majority  of  all  incunabula  are  devoted  to  theology, 
and  all  other  branches  of  letters  taken  together  are  not  half  so 
numerously  represented  as  this  one  subject.  Hence,  owing  to 
their  relative  rareness,  incunabula  dealing  with  worldly  matters 
possess  a  certain  outward  interest,  apart  altogether  from  the 
contents  of  each  individual  work. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  within  this  general  category  every 
branch  is  more  or  less  fully  represented  according  to  the  stan- 
dard of  contemporary  knowledge.  Classical  subjects  naturally 
take  the  foremost  position.  But  we  also  meet  with  numerous 
chronicles,  fugitive  pieces,  polemical  writings,  popular  treatises 
on  natural  history,  descriptions  of  travels,  almanacks,  occasional 
verses  and  other  poetical  effusions  of  later  mediaeval  times, 
grammars,  dictionaries,  encyclopaedias,  musical  works,  etc.  In  short, 
for   the    history    of    every    science,    as    well    as    of    literature    in 


36o  The  Book. 

its  narrower  sense,  the  printed  works  of  the  fifteenth  century 
present  rich  stores  of  information  that  have  hitherto  been  little 
utilized. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  use  of  such  treasures  would  be  im- 
mensely facilitated  by  bringing  together  special  collections  of 
incunabula  for  the  several  branches,  or  at  least  by  thoroughly 
cataloguing  from  this  standpoint  the  already  existing  general 
libraries  of  early  printed  works. 

6.  Works  whose  Contents  present  Special  Curious 

Interest. 

Besides  these  special  libraries,  for  which  the  greatest  possible 
completeness  will  naturally  be  aimed  at  within  the  respective 
branches,  others  might  be  suggested,  which,  whether  limited  or 
not  to  special  branches,  would  consist  only  of  those  incunabula 
whose  contents  are  specially  remarkable  on  account  of  their 
curious  contents,  in  fact  "  curios  "  of  literary  or  historic  interest. 

Such  early  works  which  apart  from  their  age  and  scarcity 
as  early  is'-.ues,  are  in  themselves  of  peculiar  interest,  and 
would  accordingly  deserve  to  be  re-issued  either  wholly  or  in 
part  do  occur  sometimes.  The  acquisition,  however,  of  these 
works,  being  for  the  most  part  very  scarce,  would  involve  a 
considerable  outlay. 

7.  Works  of  Special  Importance    for    the    History    of 

tvpographv. 
Apart  from  the  "incunabula''  there  are  here  to  be  considered: 
(a)  Works  in  which,  absolutely  or  within  a  given  region, 
there  occur  for  the  first  time  place,  privte^'  avd  year,  or  one 
alone  or  any  two  of  these  data  ;  works  in  which  catch-words, 
pagination,  title  page  occur  for  the  first  time  ;  works  which  are 
the    oldest    specimens    of  a    particular    form    of  type  ;    works    in 


Works  Illustrated   with  Woodcuts.  361 

which  initial  letters  or  marginal  embellishments  were  printed 
for  the  first  time. 

(/;)  Works  which  are  of  importance  for  the  development  of 
contractions  or  abbreviations. 

{c)  Works  containing  particular  Haws  calculated  to  throw 
light  on  the  contemporary   technical   processes. 

id)  Works  in  which  are  for  the  first  time  noticed  certain 
technical  improvements,  etc.,  etc. 

8.    Works    Illustrated    with    Woodcuts. 

A  few  years  after  the  issue  of  the  first  book  printed  with 
movable  types,  we  meet  the  first  rude  beginnings  of  book 
illustration  by  means  of  woodcuts,  an  art  which  later  acquired 
such  importance.  Gradually  the  draughtsmanship  becomes 
more  artistic,  the  technique  freer  and  surer,  until  towards  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century  we  find  in  the  Italian  School 
and  in  Schedel's  Chronik  woodcuts  which  recall  the  first 
masters  of  the  following  century. 

Hence  a  special  collection  of  incunabula  with  woodcuts 
presents  great  interest  for  the  history  of  art,  and  to  a  less 
extent  for  the  aesthetic  side  of  art.  At  the  same  time  such 
illustrated  incunabula  are  very  numerous,  some  seven  hundred 
being  known  froni  Germany  alone.  In  recent  years,  however, 
these,  like  all  other  wood-engravings,  have  risen  in  price  to 
such  an  extent  that  a  special  collection  of  this  sort  is  about 
one  of  the  most  costly  things  in  the  world. 

9.   Perfectly  Preserved  Copies. 

Such  specimens  naturally  command  all  the  higher  price,  in- 
asmuch as  the  condition  of  most  extant  incunabula  leaves 
much  to  be  desired.      Besides  the  frequent  absence  of  particular 


302  The  Book. 

leaves,  they  are  largely  damaged  by  worms,  or  disfigured  by 
the  gnawings  of  mice,  by  damp  stains,  reckless  cutting  down 
in    binding,   etc. 

Each  collector  will  best  know  how  far  he  should  go  in 
respect  of  the  condition  of  a  given  incunabulum.  Anyhow, 
wealthy  bibliophiles  are  perfectly  justified  in  seeing  on  principle 
that   the   book   is  as   flawless  as  possible. 

It  would  be  a  mistake,  however,  to  ride  this  hobby  too  far. 
An  imperfect  and  worm-eaten  unicuvi  is  far  more  valuable  than 
a  spotless  perfect  specimen  of  an  issue,  of  which  some  sixty 
copies  are  known  to  exist.  Hence,  when  it  is  a  question  of 
securing  specially  rare  copies,  we  cannot  always  insist  upon 
their   perfect   and   flawless  state. 

The  foregoing  remark  leads  to  the  consideration  of 

lo.  Extremely  Rare  Works. 
Certainlv  the  terms  rare  or  scarce  are  somewhat  vague. 
There  are  incunabula  of  which  formerly  only  a  few  copies  were 
known,  but  of  which  in  recent  years  several  others  were  offered 
for  sale  in  rapid  succession.  Has  the  book  on  that  account 
ceased  to  be  rare .''  Anyhow  there  are  several  degrees  of 
rareness  to  be  distinguished.  Apart  from  other  considerations, 
it  will  be  judicious  to  include  in  the  collection  only  such  in- 
cunabula as  are  at  least  to  a  certain  extent  scarce,  even  though 
it  be  impracticable  to  confine  ourselves  to  rarities  of  the  fii'st 
order,    all    of  these   being,   of  course,    already   bought   up. 

II.     Impressions     on    Vellum — Works    Exceptionally     Rich 
IN     Artistic     Embellishments,    Initial    Letters     and 
the  Like. 
What   has  been  said  respecting  scarce  specimens  in  general, 

naturally  applies  also  to  particular  groups  of  the  same  category 


COLLECTIOXS   ACCORDING     TO    PLACE,    PR/XTF.R,    ETC.        363 

consequently  also  for  works  with  an  unusual  wealth  of  artistic 
ornamentation  in  initials,  borderings,  miniature  painting,  etc. 
But  it  applies  still  more  especially  to  works  printed  on  vellum, 
all  the  more  that  but  few  of  these  are  extant,  while  some  are 
absolutely  unique.  In  fact,  works  on  vellum  were  issued  only 
by    a  very   small  number  of  early   printing  offices. 

12.    Collections  according  to  Place,   Printer  anh 
Varieties  of  Types. 

Those  confining  their  purchases  to  incunabula  of  some 
particular  country,  but  who  are  at  the  same  time  anxious  to 
have  as  complete  a  representation  as  possible  of  the  earliest 
development  of  the  typographic  art  in  that  region,  should  make 
every  effort  to  secure  incunabula  from  all  the  printing  establish- 
ments of  the  countries  in  question.  Among  the  productions 
issued  by  each  of  these  places  such  a  collection  will  pay 
attention  to  the  several  printers,  as  well  as  to  the  varieties  of 
types  employed  by  each  of  them.  Owing  to  the  extreme 
scarcity  of  the  specimens  from  certain  offices  absolute  complete- 
ness in  this  respect  is  of  course  practically  out  of  the  question. 
But  it  may  not  be  so  difficult  to  form  a  relatively  complete 
collection,  that  is,  one  in  which  shall  be  represented  the 
majority  of  the  printing  places  and  printers  of  a  given  country. 
At  least  this  may  be  possible,  provided  other  considerations 
be  kept  mainly  in  abeyance,  and  the  collector  be  satisfied  with 
one  specimen  of  each  printer,  as  well  as  of  each  kind  of  type. 
For  collectors  of  limited  means  this  method  is  perhaps  to  be 
preferred  before  all  others.  In  this  way  each  distinct  book 
becomes  in  fact  an  illustration  in  the  history  of  the  development 
of  the  typographic  art. 

At    the    same  time    this  method    is    also  the  best    for    everv 


364  The  Book. 

collection  that  has  to  be  made  from  the  typographical  stand- 
point, whether  such  a  collection  is  to  embrace  the  productions 
of  one  country  only,  or  those  of  all  the  regions  with  which 
we  are  here  concerned.  The  same  method  also  facilitates 
more  than   any   other  the  identification   of  undated  works. 

Collecting  according  to  typographical  specialities,  as  this 
method  might  be  called,  may  of  course  be  brought  into 
harmony  with  all  others  hitherto  touched  upon,  although  in 
such  cases  the  fundamental  principle  cannot  always  be  strictly 
adhered  to.  It  would  lead  us  too  far  to  enter  in  detail  on  all 
the  combinations   that   are  here   possible. 

It  will  suffice  to  state  that  a  collection  made  from  this 
point  of  view  will  acquire  a  fair  completeness  all  the  more 
easily  the  less  it  aims  at  securing  dated  works,  and  especially 
such  as  bear  the  printer's  mark.  The  creation  of  an  ideal 
library  of  incunabula,  in  which  every  place,  printer  and  form 
of  type  shall  be  represented  by  both  dated  and  undated 
copies,  will  always  present  extreme  difficulties.  Still  more 
difficult  must  be  a  collection  of  "  incunabula  "  of  every  place 
and  every  printer,  especially  as  these  belong  for  the  most 
part  to  the  category  of  rarities.  As  a  rule  it  will  be  found 
impossible  to  procure  the  first  issue  of  each  particular  form 
of  type. 

13.  Concluding  Remarks. 

The  foregoing  remarks  may  suffice  to  give  the  reader 
some  idea  of  the  numerous  points  to  be  considered  in  making 
collections  of  incunabula.  Much  that  has  here  been  stated 
may  look  like  so  many  truisms.  Nevertheless  the  points 
touched  upon  may  not  seem  quite  suj^erfluous  in  the  absence 
of    a    thoroughly    systematic     bibliographical     treatment    of    the 


COLLECTIOXS  ACCORDIXG   TO  PLACE,   PKLXTEK,   ETC.  365 

subject.  Nor  can  this  essay  pretend  to  supply  the  phice  of 
such  a  work,  especially  when  we  consider  how  often  both 
public  libraries  and  private  collectors  have  gone  blindly  to 
work   in   forming   their  collections. 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  the  principles  or  guiding 
rules  here  severally  developed  are  also  applicable  for  the 
systematic  cataloguing  of  already  existing  general  libraries  of 
incunabula. 


L  A  T  I  N  -  E  N  G  L  I  s  H  . 


Aarhusum,  Aarhus  151Q. 
Abbatis  Villa,  Abbeville  14.86. 
Abredonia,  Aberdeen  15  19. 
Alatum  Castrum,  Edinburgh  1509. 
Alba  Bulgarica,  Belgrade  1552. 
Aldenarda,  Audenardc  1480. 
Aldenburgum,  AUenburg  1523. 
Aiepum,  Aleppo  1706. 
Alostum  (Alost),  Aaht  147J. 
Alta  Villa,  Eltivyl  1462. 
Aquae  Bonse,  Bonn  1543.* 
Aquincum,  Buda  {Ofen)  14;  2. 
Araugia,  Aarau  1511. 
Argentoratum,  Strasburg  1466. 
Arosia,  Mj/caw  1621. 
Asculum  Picenum,  ^kW/  1477. 
Augusta  Bracara,  Braga  1494. 
Augusta  Nem3tum,  Spire  {Speier)  1477. 
Augusta   Tiberii,    Ratisbon    {Regensburg) 

1490. 
Augusta  Vindelicorum,  Augsburg  1472. 
Aurelia,  Orléans  1490. 
Avenio,  Avignon  1497. 

Bacoduram,  Passa u  1482. 

Bamberga,  Bamberg  1450. 

Bancona,  Oppenheim  1494. 

Barcino,  Barcelona  1478. 

Basilea,  ^a'A'  or  ^<?j/t'  1470. 

Batavia,  Batavia  1668. 

Berna,  i?t7-«t'  1525. 

Berolinum,  Berlin  1540. 

Berona  (in  Ergovia),  Beromiinskr  1470. 

Bonna,  j9o««  1543- 

Bononia,  Bologna  1471. 


Brangonia,  n'vr(.vAv  1548. 

Brixia,  Breseia  1473. 

Brugae    Bearniae,     Bruges    {Brugge) 

HIS- 
Bruna,  Brilnn  1 49 1. 
Brunsviga,  Brunsivick  1509. 
Bruxella,  Brussels  {Bruxelles)  1476. 
Burdigala,  Bordeaux  i486. 
Burgdorfium,  Burgdorf  i^-j^,. 
Burgi,  Burgos  1485. 
Buscoduca,    Bois-le-Duc    {Herlogenbusch) 

1 48+. 

Cabelia,  Chablis  1478. 

Cadomum,  Ci?!/;  1480. 

Caesaraugusta,  Saragossa  {Zaragoza)  1475 

Cale,  Opor/o  1622. 

Galium   ad  Calem),  Ci?^//  1475. 

Camboricum,     Cambridge     1556  ;     United 

States  1638. 
Cantuaria,  Canterbury  1549. 
Capitabriga,     Cambridge     1556  ;      United 

States  1638. 
Caroli  Hesychium,  Karlsruhe  1545. 
Cassella  ^or  Casseletum),  C asset  161 1. 
Casulae,  Casole  1475. 
Chalybon,  Aleppo  1706. 
Christiania,  Christiania  1643. 
Chrysii    Auraria,    AUenburg    (Hungan) 

■558- 
Cibinium,  Hennannstadt  1575. 
Cliniacum,  Clunv  1493. 
Colonia,  Cologne  1470. 
Complutum,  Akald  de  Henans,   149g. 
Comiim,  Ctwo  1474. 


Topographical  Ixdex. 


369 


Conimbrica,  Coimhra  1536. 
Corduba,  Cordova  1495. 
Cracovia,  Cracow  149 1. 
Cremona,  Cre/>iona  1473. 
Culemburgum,  Cidtiiikirg  1483. 
Cutna,  KiitUnbcrg  1489. 

Damascus,  Damascus  1605. 
Darmstadium,  Darmstadt  1 6  r  i . 
Laventria,  Dcvcnier  1477. 
Debrecinum,  Dcbreczin  1565. 
Delfi,  7?,//"/  1477. 
Derbatum,  Dorpat  1642. 
Divio,  />//();;  1491. 
Dresda,  Dresden  1524. 
Dublinum,  Dublin  1551. 

Eboracum,  iorX-  1509. 

Edinum,  Edinburgh  1509. 

Einsilda,  Einsicddn  1664. 

Emmerani  Coeaob.,  Ratisbon  {Regcnsburg) 

J490. 
Eng'olisma,  AngouUme  1491. 
Erfordia,  Erfurt  1494. 
Ezelinga,  Esslingen  1473. 

Fanum  Fortunse,  /(7«o  1475 

Fanum  St.  Galli,  S7.  G<?//  1577 

Ferrara,  Fcirara  1471 

Fivizanum,  Fivizzano  i^-ji 

Formosa,  Formosa  I  66 1. 

Francofurtum  ad  Maenum,  Frankfurt-m- 

l  he- Alain  1531. 
Francofurtum  ad  Oderam,  Frankfort-on- 

t  he-Oder  1567. 
Freiberga  in  Misnia,  Freiberg  {Frejberg), 

1495- 
Friburgum,  Freiburg  i.  Br.  1493. 
Friburgum  Helv.,  Fribourg  {Freiburg)  in 

Switzerland  1585. 
Frisinga,  Frey singe n  1494. 

Galgocinum,  Galgocz  1584. 
Galli  Fanum,  .SV.  (^i///  1577. 


Ganda,  Ghent  1483. 
Geneva,  Geneva  1478. 
Genua,  Ijenna  1472. 
Gerunda,  Gerona  1483. 
Gippesvicum,  Ipswich  1538. 
Goslaria,  Goslar  1604. 
Gothoburgum,  Gothenburg  1650. 
Gouda,  Gouda  1477. 
Gronaicum,  Greenwich  1564. 

Hadrianopolis,  Adrianople  1554. 
Hafnia,  Copenhagen  1490. 
Haga  Comitis,  The  Hague  1516. 
Hagenoa,  Hagenau  1500. 
Halebum,  Aleppo  1706. 
Hamburgum,  Hamburg  1491. 
Hasseletum,  Hasselt  1480. 
Heidelberga,  Heidelberg  1485. 
Herbipolis,  Wiirzburg  1479. 
Hesychia  Carolina,  Karlsruhe  1545. 
Hispalis,  Seville  1+80. 
Holmia,  Stockholm  1474. 
Hyctopolis  ad  Istrum,  Ratisbon  {Regcns- 
burg) 1490. 

Ilerda,  Lerida  1479. 
Ingolstadium,  Ingolstadt  1490. 

Eralia,  Kralitz  (Moravia)  1579. 
Kuttenberga,  Kuttenbcrg  148g. 

Lauginga,  Laugingen  1473. 
Lausanna,  Lausanne  1556. 
Leiria,  Z(7>/tf  1484. 
Lemovicum,  Limoges  1495. 
Leopolis,  Lemberg  1593. 
Leovardia,  Letnvarden  1485. 
Letbes  fl.,  Lima  1585. 
Leuphana,  Lunelnug  1493. 
Limonum,  Poitiers  J 47 9. 
Lipsia,  Leipzig  1479. 
Lobavia,  Liibau  1718. 
Londinium,  London  1477. 
Londinium  Gothorum,  /.;/«(/  1663. 

24 


370 


Topographical  Ixdex. 


Loudeacum,  Lmuh'ac  1484. 
Lovania,  Louvain  {Lœwen)  1473. 
Lubeca,  IJihcck  1498. 
Lucerna  Helvetiorum,  Lucerne  1524. 
Lug^dunum,  L.yons  {Lyon)  1473. 
Lugdunum  Batavorum,  Leyden  1483. 
Luneburgum,  Lunehurg  1493. 

Madritum,  Madrid  1500. 
Magdeburgum,  Magdeburg  1488. 
Manilla,  Manila  1590. 
Mantua,  ^Lanlua  1472. 
Marionis,  Hamburg  1491. 
Marionis  Altera,  Liiheck  1498. 
Marsiburgum,  Meneburg  1473. 
Mediolanum,  Milan  1469. 
Memminga,  Memmingen  1482. 
Messina,  Messina  1473. 
Mesuium,  Brunsivick  1509. 
Misna,  Meissen  1508. 
Mogontiacum,  Afayence  {Mainz)  1448. 
Mohilavia,  Mohileff  idi-]. 
Monaehium,  Munich  1482. 
Monasterium,  Munster  1485. 
Monasterium  B.  Mariae  de  Monserrato, 

Xuestra  Sehora  de  ^Lonserrale  149g. 
Monasterium  Tavistock,  Tavistock  1525. 
Monasterium    Wadstenense,     Wadstenia 

'495- 
Mens  Regalis,  Monte  Reak  1472. 
Mons  Regalis,  Monterey  1494. 
Mens  Serratus,  Monserrate  1499. 
Monyorokerekinum,    Eberau    (Hungary) 

1589. 
Moscovia,  Moscmv  1553. 
Murcia,  Murcia  1487. 
Mutina,  Modena  1480. 

Namnetus  Portus,  Nantes  1493. 
Neapolis,  A\iples  1472. 
Neoburgum,  Neufchâtd  1530. 
Norimberga,  Nurenbcrg  1470. 
Noviomagus,  Ximeguen  1479. 
Novum  Eboracum,  TVt^i»  iVX'  1693. 


Novum  Londinium,  .Avw  London  170g. 

Ocellodurum,  Zanwra  1482. 
OfFenburgum,  Uffenlurg  1494. 
Olisipo,  Lisboa  1495. 
Othania,  Odcnse  1482. 

Pampalona,  Pampelona  1489. 
Panormus,  Palermo  1477. 
Parisius,  Z',;/-/.?  1470. 
Parma,  Parma  1473. 
Perusia,  Perugia  1475. 
Petropolis,  .S"/.  Petersburg  17  10. 
Philadelphia,  Pliiladelpliia  i686. 
Piacentia,  Piacenza  1475. 
Pintia,   Valladolid  1493. 
Pons  Neviae,  Puebla  de  Navia  1612. 
Posnania,  /'ot<'«  1577. 
Praetorium,  Kingston  1720. 
Probatopolis,  Sehaffhausen  1577. 
Provinum,  Provins  1496. 

Eedones,  Rennes  1484. 

Regiomontium    Borussiae,   Klmigsberg  i. 

Pr.   1523. 
Regiopolis,  Kingston  1720. 
Rhegium,  Reggio  1498. 
Ripa,  7?/&  1508. 
Roe  Fontes,  Rôskyld  1534. 
Roma,  /?()/«(■  1467-68. 
Romano  via,  Romanoff  16 19. 
Rostochium,  Rostock  1496. 
Rotomagus,  Rouen  1487. 
Ruotlinga,  Reutlingen  1500. 

Salmantica,  Salamanca  1485. 
Sarvarinum,  UJ-Szigeth-Sân\ir  1539. 
Schiedamum,  Schiedam  1483. 
Schoonhovia,  Schoenhooven  1495. 
Sedinum,  Stettin  1577. 
Sentice,  Zamora  1482. 
Singidunum,  Belgrade  1552. 
Slesvicum,  Schlesnvig  1485. 
Smyrna,  Smyrna  1658, 
Stutgardia,  Stuttgart  i486. 


TOPOGRAPHK :\I.    IXDF.X. 


371 


Sublacense  Cœnob.,  Sulnaco  1+64. 
Szegedinum,  Szigtdin  1567. 

Ternobum,  Tymau  1578. 

Ticinum,  Pavia  1476. 

Tigurum,  Zurich  1504. 

Timalinum,  Pucbla  de  Xavia  i6iz. 

Toletum,  Tolcdj  i486. 

Tolosa,  Tolosa  1480. 

Tolosa  Tectosagum,  Toulouse  1479. 

Trajectum  Inferius,  Utncht  1473. 

Trecae,  Troy  {Troyes)  1483. 

Tridentum,   'Trent  {Trient)  1475. 

Tubinga,  T a  h  in  gen  1498. 

Tzernigovia,     Tse/iemigo-iv     (  Czer?iigoiv), 

193- 

Ulma,  CTw  1470. 


Upsalia,  Upsnla  1510. 

Valentia,   J'^a/eneia  1474. 
Varadinum,  Grossivartfein  1585. 
Varsavia,  If'^/.vfw  1580. 
Venetia,  Venice  1469. 
Venta,   Winchester  1545. 
Verona,   Verona  1470. 
Vesontio,  Besançon  1487. 
Viburgus,  PViwg'  1528. 
Vigornia,  ffî^^rcjAv-  1548. 
Vilna,  f [/■/««  1525. 
Vindabona,   Vienna  {Wien)  1482. 
Vinterberga,   Winterherg  1484. 
Vratislavia,  B resta ti  1538. 

Zamoscium,  Zamosc  1557. 
ZwoUa,  Z7f'o//f  1479. 


ENGLISH-LATIN 


Aalst,  Alostum  1473. 
Aarau,  Araugia  151 1. 
Aarhus,  Aarhusum  15 19. 
Abbeville,  Abliatis  Villa  i486. 
Aberdeen,  AhreJonia  1519. 
Adrianople,  HadrianopoUs  1554. 
Aleala  de  Henares,  Complutum  149g. 
Aleppo,     Alepum,     Chalyhon,      Halehian 

1706. 
Alost,  Alostum  1473. 

Altenburg  (German)-),  Aldenhurgum  1523. 
Altenburg    (Hungary),    Chrysii   Auraria 

1538. 
Angouleme,  Engolisma  1 49 1 . 
Ascoli,  Aseiilum  Pieeniim  1477. 
Audenarde,  Aldenarda  1480. 
Augsburg,  Augusta  Vindelicorum  1472. 
Avignon,  Avenio  1497. 

Bale  (Basle),  Basilea  1470. 
Bamberg,  Bamberga  1450. 
Barcelona,  Barcino  1478. 


Batavia,  Batavia  1668. 

Belgrade,    ^Az    Bulgarica,     Singidunum 

'552- 
Berlin,  Berolinum  1540. 
Berne,  Bern  a  1525. 
Beromunster,  Berona  1470. 
Bois-le-Duc,  Buscoduca  1484. 
Bologna,  Bononia  1471. 
Bonn,  Aquœ  Bonœ,  Bonna  1543. 
Bordeaux,  Burdigala  i486. 
Braga,  Augusta  Bracara  14Q4. 
Bresoia,  Brixia  1473. 
Breslau    Vatnslavia  1538. 
Bruges  (Brugge),  Brugœ  Beamiœ  1475 
Biiinn,  Br  una  1 49 1. 
Brunswick,  Brunsviga,  JAsninoi  1509. 
Brussels,  Bruxella  1476. 
Buda    Ofen\  Aijuineum  1472. 
Burgdorf,  Burgdorfiuni  1475. 
Burgos,  j^///-^7  14S5. 

Caen,  Cadomum  1480. 


3/2 


Topographical  Index. 


Cagli,  Calitun  {ad  Calan)  I47S- 
Cambridge,     Camhon'cum,     Capitahriga 

155O. 
Canterbury,  Can/uan'a  1549. 
Casole,  Casulœ  1475. 
Cassel,  Cassella,  Casselelum  1 6 1 1 . 
Chablis,  Cahelia  1478. 
Christiana,  Christiana  1643. 
Cluny,  Climacum  1493. 
Coimbra,  Conimhrica  1536. 
Cologne,  Colonia  1470. 
Como,  Comum  1474. 
Copenhagen,  Hafnia  1490. 
Cordova,  Corduba  1495. 
Cracow,  Cracovia  1491. 
Cremona,  Cremona  1473. 
Culemborg,  Cuhnhurgiim  1483. 
CzernigOW,  Tzenwgavia  1493. 

Damascus,  Damascus  1605. 
Darmstadt,  Darmstadiuvi  1 6 1 1 . 
Debreczin,  Dcbrecinum  1565. 
Delft,  Z)./A  1477. 
Deventer,  Davenlria  \\ii. 
Dijon,  Z)/?'/»  1 49 1. 
"DovÇdX,  Dtiiialum  164Z. 
Dresden,  Dn-sda  1524. 
Dublin,  Diiblinum  1551. 

Eberau     (Hungary),    Monyorokerekinum 

■589- 
Edinburgh,    Alalum     Cast  rum,     Edinum 

1509- 
Einsiedeln,  Einsilda  1664. 
Eltwyl,  ^/A/  F///(7  1462. 
Erfurt,  Erfordia    1494. 
Esslingen,  Ezdinga  1473. 

Fano,  Fanum  ForluiuT  1475. 
Ferrara,  Fcrrara  1471. 
Fivizzano,  Fivizanuvi  1472. 
Formosa,  Formosa  1661. 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  Francofurlum  ad 
I\Lrnum  1 5  3  i . 


Frankfort-on-the-Oder,   Francofurlum  ad 

Odcram   1567. 
Freiberg  (Freyburg),  Frciberga  in  i\Iisnia 

1495. 
Freiburg  i.  Br.,  Friburgum  1493. 
Freysingen,  Frisinga  1494. 
Fribourg     (Freiburg)    in    Switzerland, 

Friburgum  Hdv.  1585. 

GalgOCZ,  Galgocinum  1584. 
Geneva,  Gmcva  1478. 
Genoa,  Genua  1472. 
Gerona,  Gerunda  1483. 
Ghent,  Ganda  1483. 
Goslar,  Goslaria  1604. 
Gothenburg,  Gothoburgum  1650. 
Gouda,  Gow^/iz  1477. 
Greenwich,  Gronaicum  1564. 
Gross wardein,  Varadinum  1585. 

Hagenau,  Hagctioa  1500. 
Hague,  The,  /^<7^i7  Com  His  15 16. 
Hamburg,  Hamburgum,  RIarionis  1491. 
Hasselt,  Hasseletum  1480. 
Hermannstadt,  Cibinium  1575. 

Ingolstadt,  Ingolsladium  1490. 
Ipswich,  Gippesvicum  1538. 

Karlsruhe,    Caroli    Hcsychium,    Hesychia 

Carolina  1545. 
Kingston,  Prœlorium,  Regiopolis  1720. 
Kbnigsberg  i.  Pr.,  Rcgiomonlium  Borussiœ 

1523- 
Kralitz  (Moravia),  À'ra/Ziz  1579. 
Kuttenberg,   Cutna,  Kutlcnlnrga  1489. 

Laugingen,  Lauginga  1473. 
Lausanne,  Lausanna  iSS^- 
Leipzig,  Z/'^j/tf  1479- 
Leiria,  Leiria  1484. 
Lemberg,  Lcopolis  1593- 
Lerida,  //m/a  1479. 
Leuwarden,  Leovardia  1485. 


Topographical  Ixdex. 


373 


Leyden,  Lugditnum  Bal<r,'orum  1483. 

Lima,  Lilhesfl.  1585. 

Limog'es,  Lemovicum  1495. 

Lisboa,  Olisipo  1495. 

Lobau,  Lohavia  171  8. 

Lœwen  (Louvain),  LoTcuiia  1473. 

London,  LomUnium  i^-jj- 

Loudéac,  iMudeacum  1484, 

Louvain,  Lovania  1473. 

Liibeck,  Lubica,  Man'onis  A I /era  1408. 

Lund,  Londinium  Gothorum  1663. 

Luneburg,  Luihburgum  1493. 

Lyons  (Lyon),  Lugdunum  1473. 

Madrid,  Madritum  1500. 

Magdeburg,  ^[agddlurgllln  1488. 

Mainz.     See  J/njrncf. 

Manila,  Manilla  1590. 

Mayence,  Mogontiacum  1448. 

Meissen,  Mi'sna  1508. 

Memmingen,  Manminga  1482. 

Merseburg,  Marsibtirgum  1473. 

Messina,  ^[l•ssina  1473. 

Milan,  JLdiolanum  1469. 

Modena,  Mutiita  1480. 

Mohileif,  Mnhilaria  1617. 

Monserrate  (Nuestra  Senora  de),  Monas- 

terium  B.  Markt  de  IMonserralo,  Moris 

Sirraliis  1499. 
Monte  Reale,  J/owj-  R( galls  1472 
Monterey,  ^l/<>«^  Regalls  1494. 
Moscow,  Moscovia  1553. 
Miinchen.     See  Munich. 
Munich  (Miinchen),  Monachium  1482. 
Miinster,  Munaslcrium  1485. 
Murcia,  Munia  1487. 

Nantes,  Xanmclus  Partus  1493. 

Naples,  Xca polls  1472. 

Neufchâtel,  Xeohurguni  1530. 

New  London,  Xovum  Londinium  1709. 

New  York,  Novum  Ehoracum  1693. 

Nimeguen,  Xovlomagus  1479. 

Nurenberg  (Nurnberg),  Norlmherga  1470. 


Odense,  Othanla  1482. 
OfFenburg,  Offcnhurgum  1494. 
Oppenheim,  Bancona  1494. 
Orléans,  Aunlla  1490. 

Palermo,  Panomm     i\'J1- 
Pampelona,  Pampalnna  1489. 
Paris,  Parlslus  1470. 
ParJia,  Parma  1473. 
Passau,  Bacodurum  14S2. 
Pavia,  Jiclnum  1476. 
Perugia,  Pcrusia  1475. 
Philadelphia,  Philadelphia  1686. 
Piacenza,  Placentia  1475. 
Poitiers,  Llmonum  1479. 
Posen,  Posnania  1577. 
Provins,  Provinum  1496. 
Puebla  de  Navia,  /"o^j-  A'f?';«,  Timallnum 
161 2. 

Ratisbon,  Augusta  Tibcrli,  Emmeranl  Cœ- 

nob.,  Hyctopolls  ad  [strum  1490. 
Regensburg.     See  Ratisbon. 
Reggio,  Rhtglum  1498. 
Rennes,  Redone  s  1484. 
Reutlingen,  Ruotlinga  150c. 
Ribe,  yv'//<7  1508. 
Romanoff,  Romanoj<ia  1619. 
Rome,  /s'orna  1467-8. 
Rbskyld,  i?ot'  Fontes  1534. 
Rostock,  Rostochium  1496. 
Rouen,  Roiomagus  1487. 

Salamanca,  Salmantlca  1485. 
Saragossa(Zaragoza),  Cœsaraugusta  1475. 
Schaffhausen,  Pmbatopolis  1577. 
Schiedam,  Sehledamum  1483. 
Schleswig,  Shsvlcum  1485. 
Schoenhooven,  Sehoonhovia  1495. 
Seville,  Hlspalh  1480. 
Smyrna,  Smyrna  1658. 
Speier.     See  .S>w. 
Spire,  Augusta  Xtinetum  J.^.J'J. 


374 


TOPOGRAPHICAL    IXDEX. 


St.  Gall,  Fannm  Si.  Galli,   Gnlli  Faiiiim 

St.  Petersburg,  PdropoUs  1710. 
Stockholm,  Holmia  1474- 
Strasburg,  Argenioralian  1466. 
Stuttgart,  Stilt gardia  i486. 
Subiaeo,  Suhhuense  Ca-noh.  1464. 
Szegedin,  Szcgcdinum  1567. 
Szigeth  (Uj-Szigeth-Sârvâr),  Sarvarinum 
1539- 

Tavistock,  Monastcrium  Tcivistoik  1525. 
Toledo,  Toletum  i486. 
Tolosa,  Tolosa  1480. 
Toulouse,  Tolosa  Teclosagiim  1479. 
Trent   Trient),  Trident um  1475. 
Troy   Troyes),  TnriC  1483. 
Tschernigow,  Tzeniigovia  1493- 
Tubingen,  Tuhinga  1498. 
Tyrnau,  Tnwhiim  1578. 

Ulm,  ^7///i?  1470. 

TJpsala,  Upsalia  15 10. 

Utrecht,  Trajeitum  In/iiiiis  1473. 


Valencia,  Valentia  1474. 
Valladolid,  Pintia  1493 
Venice,  Vcnetia  1469. 
Verona,   Verona  1470. 
Viborg,  Vibiirgus  1528. 
Vienna,  Vindabona  1482. 

Wadstenia,  jl/(?«(7.f/tv'/«;«  Wadstenense  1495. 
Warsaw,  Varsavia  1580. 
Westeras,  Arosia  1621. 
Wilna,  r7/«a  1525. 
Winchester,  Pfv/A?  1545. 
Winterberg,   Viriterberga  1484. 
Worcester,  Brangonta,  Vigomia  1548. 
Wiirzburg,  Herbipolis  1479. 

York,  Eboraciim. 

Zamora,  Ocellodnrum,  Sent  fee  1482. 
Zamose,  Zamoscium  1557. 
Zurich,  Tigurum  1504. 
ZwoUe,  Zwolla  1479. 


GENERAL     INDEX. 


Abbreviations,  330,  337. 

Adolph  of  Nassau,  36. 

/Elius  Donatus,  8. 

^sop's  Fables,  first  Dutch  translation,  1485, 

82. 
Alciati's  Emblems,  143. 
Aiding,  Henry,  printer  in  Sicily,  44. 
Aldus  Manutius,  66,  108,  113,  252,  271. 
America,  North,  printing  in,  228. 
Ames'  Typograph.  Antiquities,  50. 
Amman,  Jost,  251. 
Andrea,  John,  112,  113. 
Angoulême,  Jean  d',  309. 
Anne  de  Bretagne,  268. 
Anopistographs,  printed  on  one  side  onl)',  18. 
Antwerp,  early  printing  at,  155. 
Apuleius'  L  Amour  de  Cupidon  et  de  Psvchc, 

140. 
Ars  Memorandi,  block  book,  1 3. 
An  Mon'eudi,  block  book,  10. 
Art  au  Marier,  block  book,  12. 
Artistic  get-up,  341. 
Asola,  Andrew  (A.  Torresani),  66. 
Astor  Library,  320. 
Audran,  C,  engraver,  166. 
Author's  name,  326. 

Bacon's  Advancement  of  Learning,  153. 

Badier,  Florimond,  binder,  295. 

Badius,  Josse,  of  Asch,  printer  in  Paris,  138, 
257. 

Balbus'i  John,  Catholicon,  printed  by  Guten- 
berg, 33. 

Baldini,  Baccio,  designs  for  early  Italian 
books,  67. 

Ballard,  Robert,  printer  for  music,  152,  196. 

Barbier,  Jean,  printer,  53. 

Barbin,  Claude,  publisher,  187. 


Barbou,  bookseller  of  Paris,  196,  208. 
Barker,  Robert,  binder,  304. 

,,       Robert,    first  authorized  version    of 

the  Bible,  192. 
Barnes,   Dame  Juliana,   Treatyses  perteyn- 

yngc  to  Fyshing,  52. 
Bartolozzi,  engraver,  219. 
Baskerville,  John,    printer    of  Birmingham, 

218,  254. 
Bâtarde  la  Grosse,  47. 
Bechtermunze,  Henry,  pupil  of  Gutenberg, 

34  ;  his  Vocabularium,  44. 
Bedford,  Francis,  binder,  303. 
Belfort,  Andrew,  44. 
Bergman  de  Olpe,  printer  of  Seb.  Brandt's 

Ship  of  Fools,  79. 
Bernard,    Le   Petit,    or   Bernard    Solomon, 

designer,  145. 
Berthelet,  Thomas,  binder,  303. 
Bewick,  Thomas,  engraver,  224. 
Beyamus,  C,  of  Savigliano,  339. 
Beza,  Theodore,   1 36. 
Bible,  the  first  English  in  Roman  type,  1 17. 

,,      the  Gutenberg,  23. 

„      the  Mayence  of  1462,  35. 

,,      the  thirty-six  line,  by  A.  Pfister,  34. 
Biblia  Paiiperiim,  block  book,  10. 
Bibliographical  directions,  342. 
Biblioteca  Marciana,  Venice,  319. 
Bignon,  Abbé,  312. 
Bill  of  type,  255. 

Bindings,  descriptions  of,  262,  347. 
Biziaux,  binder,  302. 
Blades,  'W.,  48. 
Blake,  William,  221. 
Blanc,  Charles,  241. 
Block  books,  the,  10. 
Boccaccio's  Z'^crtwf /■<>«,  ffjl.,  1620,  191. 


376 


General  Index. 


Bodley,  Sir  Thomas,  317. 

Bodoni,  printer,  254. 

Boner's,  Ulrich, /^rfWt-j,  by  A.  Pfister,  1461,62. 

Bonhomme,  printer  at  L)-ons,  145. 

Book  trade  of  the  fifteenth  century,  42. 

Books  of  Hours,  85. 

Bookworms,  268. 

Borel,  Petrus,  238. 

Borromeo,  Cardinal,  31g. 

Bosse,  Abraham,  engraver,  177. 

Bostgaard,  Fred,  312. 

Boston  Library,  320. 

Botticelli,  Sandro,  plates  to  Dante,  67. 

Boucher,  François,  designer,  19S. 

Bourdichon,  Jean,  designer,  83. 

Boy  dell's.  Alderman,  Shakespeare,  219. 

Boyet,  binder,  302. 

Bradstreet,  binder,  303. 

Brandt's,  Seb.,  Shyp  of  Folys,  by  Pynson.l  18. 

Brandt's,  Sebastian,  Ship  of  Fools,  by  Berg- 
man de  Olpe,  79. 

Breydenbach's  Pérégrinations  en  Terre 
Sainte,  printed  by  Topic  de  Pymont,  150. 

British  Museum,  314,  317. 

Brocard,  Andrew,  bookseller,  103. 

Brothers,  The,  of  Common  Life,  45,  338. 

Brown,  H.  K.,  designer,  245. 

Brunet's  Manual,  325. 

Bucking,  Arnold,  printer  at  Rome,  70. 

Bude,  Guillaume,  309. 

Buon,  Nicholas,  bookseller,  165,  169. 

Butler's  Htidibras,  1663,  193. 

Caesaris,  Peter,  Paris  printer,  82. 

Caldecott,  Randolph,  designer,  246. 

Callot,  Jacques,  engraver,  175. 

Campbell's  Atittales,  325. 

Cape,  binder,  303. 

Cardon,  Horace,  publisher,  166. 

Caron,  Antoine,  engraver,  164. 

Cars,  Laurent,  engraver,  198. 

Caslon,  William,  type-founder,  21S,  254. 

Catch-vvordS;  333. 

Catherine  de  Medici,  286. 

Catholicon,  The,  printed  by  Gutenberg,  33. 

Cawood,  John,  printer,  118. 

Caxton,  William,  first  English  printer,  47-50, 

253- 
Cazin,  publisher,  209. 


Chaillot,  Robin,  publisher,  gg. 

Cliamflciiry,  by  G.  Tory,  131. 

Chamot,  binder,  302. 

Chatnpavert,  Contes  Immorean.r,  238. 

Chapman's /^o;«(?/',  161  i,  191. 

Chappuis,  Claude,  bookseller  to  Francis  L, 

136. 
Charles  V.,  308. 
Charles  VIL,  53. 
Charles  V'lll.,  123,  308. 
Charles  IX.,  288,  310. 

Chaucer,  printed  by  T.  Godfray,  1532,   118. 
Chauveau,  François,  engraver,  188. 
Chevalier,  Peter,  publisher  of  the  Mctanéa- 

logie,  164. 
Chicago  Library,  320. 
Chodowiecki,  D.  N.,  designer,  216. 
Choffard,  engraver,  190,  207. 
Chronicle  of  Aragon,  The,  1523,  116. 
Cicero,    De     Officiis,     4to,     by     Fust    and 

Schoeffer,  1465,  38. 
Claude's  Liber  Vcritatis,  1777,  2ig. 
Clement,  Nicolas,  312. 
Clennell,  Luke,  engraver,  224,  244. 
Clouet,  François,  147,  153. 
Clousier,  royal  printer,  227. 
Cochin,  vignettist,  200. 
Cohn,  Albert,  bookseller  of  Berlin,  29,  351. 
Coignard,  bookseller,  196. 
Colard  Mansion,  printer  at  Bruges,  46,  81. 
Colbert,  288,  312. 
Colines,  Simon  de,   printer  at  Paris,    1527, 

129,  131. 
Cologne  Chronicle,  The,  1499,  24,  26,  73. 
Common  Prayer  Book  (the  first),  known  as 

Edward  VI.'s,  1 19. 
Colonna's,  Francesco,   Poliphili's  Hypnero- 

tomachia,  70. 
Colophon,  the,  327. 
Collation,  the,  332. 
Collections  according  to  place  and  printer, 

363. 
Combe's  Dr.  Syntax's  Three  Tours,  245. 
Commin,  Vincent,  bookseller  in  Paris,  98. 
Condition  of  the  copy,  349. 
Congress  Librarj'  of  Washington,  320. 
Constitutioncs  of  Pope  Clement  \ ..  35. 
Cornells  de  la  Haye,  147. 
Coster,  Laurent,  9. 


Gexeral  Ixdex. 


m 


Cotton,  Sir  Robert,  31S. 

Cousin,  Jean,  designer,  145,  14S,  151. 

Coverdale's  English  Bible,  118. 

Cramoisy,   Sébastien,  printer  of  Paris,   164, 

174,  296. 
Cranacli,  Lucas,  116,  316. 
Crannier's  Bible,  119. 

,,  Catechism,  1 19. 

Cruikshank,  George,  245. 
Curmer,  publisher  of  Paris,  240. 

Dances  of  Death,  The,  73,  100. 

Danic,  by  Bonino  de  Boni,  i,  1487,  71. 

Dated  and  Undated  Works,  355. 

Dating,  the,  528. 

Daumier,  designer,  242. 

David,  J.  L.,  designer,  212,  214. 

Day,  John,  printer,  116,  253. 

De  Bry,  192. 

De  Lormel,  211. 

De  Norvins,  Hist,  de  Napoléon,  illustrated 

by  Raffet,  242. 
Decameron,  illustrated  by  Gravelot,  204. 
Del'a  Bella,  engraver,  177. 
De  la  Marche,  Olivier,  82. 
Denis  de  la  Noue,  166. 
Derome,  binder,  301. 
Desarques,  La  Manière  Universelle,  177. 
Desenne,  230. 
Desportes,  Philippe,  2S7. 
Devéria,  designer,  237. 
D'Houry,  196. 
Diana  of  Poitiers,  286,  309. 
Dickens,  Charles,  245. 
Didot,  Ambroise  Firmin,  233. 

,,       family,  the,  231,  254. 

,,       François,  202. 

„        Pierre  François,  227. 
Diodoriis  Sictiliis,  by  Geoffroy  Tory,  1 34. 
Dolet,  Etienne,  159. 
Donatus,  the,  8,  10. 
Dorat,  Les  Baisers,  1770,  207. 
Doré,  Gustave,  designer,  243. 
Doyle,  Richard,  246. 
Dritzehen,  Andrew,  16. 
,,  Nicolas,  17. 

Dubochet,  publisher  of  Paris,  239. 
Du  Cerceau,  Les  Plus  Beaux  Bastiments  de 

France,  151. 


Dubois,  Gilles,  binder,  296. 
Dubuisson,  Pierre  Paul,  binder,  301. 
Duc  d'Orléans,  195. 
Duchesne,  236. 
Dumesnil,  Robert,  14S. 
Diinne,  goldsmith,  17. 
Duplat's  relief  engraving  on  stone,  223. 
Duplessi-Bertaux,  214. 
Duplessis,  George,  141. 
Du  Pré,  Galliot,  142. 
„      „     Jean,  printer,  96,  105. 
Dupuy  Brothers,  librarians,  31 1. 
Durandus'  Rationale,  34. 
Diirer's,  Albert,  Apocalypse,  75,  77,  113. 

,,  ,,         Life  of  tlie  ]'irgin,yi. 

„  „         Passion,  78. 

Duru,  binder,  303. 
Duseuil,  binder,  302. 
Dutuit,  E.,  Manuel  de  Estauipes,  39. 

Earlom,  Richard,  219. 

East  India  Company,  120. 

Eisen,  204,  302. 

Elizabeth's,  Queen,  Prayer  Book,  116. 

Elzevir,  Abraham,  170. 

,,       Bonaventure,  170. 

,,       Daniel,  172. 

,,       Louis,  170. 
Engerrand,  Pierre,  binder,  302. 
Enschedé  family,  the,  173. 
Entrée,  I',  du  Roi  Henri  IL  à  Lyon,  146. 
Erasmus'  Eloge  de  la  Folie,  142. 
Etienne,  Robert,  134,  137,  13S,  253. 
Euclid,  Elements  of,  1482,  65. 
Eustace,  Guillaume,  97,  125. 
Eve,  Clovis,  293. 

,,    Nicholas,  290. 
Eyck,  Van,  g. 

Faithorne,  W.,  192. 

Fanti's,  Sigismond,  Trionfo  di  Fortuna,  112. 
Fasciculus  Temporum,  by  John  V'eldener,  81. 
Fasciculus    Temporum,    printed    by  Arnold 

Ther  Hoernen,  72. 
Fermiers  Généraux,  Les,  207,  209. 
Fichet,  Guillaume,  39,  56,  58,  61. 

,,       Pierre.  25, 
Finiguerra,  Maso,  66. 
Flaxman,  230. 


378 


Ge.xeral  Index. 


Formschneiders,  the.  142. 

Fornazeris,  J   de,  166. 

Foster,  Birket,  246. 

Foucquet,  Jean,  83,  288. 

Fouet,  Robert,  170. 

Foulis  Press,  Glasgow,  the,  2i8. 

Fount  of  type,  255. 

Fournier,  254. 

Fra  Angelico,  64. 

Francesco  da  Bologna,  108. 

Francis  I.,  123,  136,  268,  281,  283,  309. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  228,  320. 

Frederick  II.,  319. 

Free  Public  Libraries,  321. 

Frelon,  141. 

Freyburger,  Michael,  57,  59. 

Friedberg,  Peter,  Mayence,  33g. 

Froben,  Johannes,  74,  140,  253. 

Froissart  s  Chronicles,  118. 

Fuller's  Worthies  of  England,  193. 

Fume,  publisher  of  Paris,  241. 

Fuseli,  230. 

Fust,  John,  15,  18,  39,  260. 

Gaguin,  Robert,  39. 

Gaguin's  Compendium,  122. 

Galen's />(?  Temperamentis,  1521,  120. 

Galliot  du  Pré,  142. 

Garamond,  Claude,  137,  173,  253. 

Gasparin  of  Bergamo,  Letters,  59. 

Gaston  de  Foix,  2. 

Gaultier,  Léonard,  157,  164. 

Gavarni,  designer,  243. 

Gensfleisch,  John,  15. 

Gérard,  230. 

Gérard  de  Leeu,  82. 

Gering,  Krantz,  and  Freyburger,  339. 

Gering,  Ulrich,  printer  in  Paris,  57,  59,  62 

Gesi'i,  Nicholas  and  Dominic  Dal,  112. 

Gibson,  John,  binder,  303. 

Gigoux,  Jean,  the  younger,  238,  239. 

Gilbert,  Sir  John,  246. 

Gilles  Remade,  97. 

Gillot,  Claude,  190,  196,  198. 

Girodet,  230,  234. 

Giunta,  Lucantonio,  iii,  113. 

Glim,  J.,  of  Savigliano,  339. 

Goetz,  Nicholas,  of  Cologne,  338. 

Gombauld,  169.  _ 


Gothan,  B.,  of  Lubeck,  33g. 
Gourmont,  Gilles  de,  127. 

,,  Jean  de,  153. 

Graesse's  Trésor,  325. 
Grafton,  Richard,  119. 
Grandes  Chroniques,  Les,  96. 
Grandes  Heures,  Les,  by  Vérard,  95. 
Grandjean,  254. 
Grand    Navire     Publishing   Company,    the, 

174- 
Grandville,  designer,  243. 
Gravelot,  H.  F.,  engraver,  203,  21g. 
Greuter,  Fred,  169. 
Grolier,  Jehan,  131,  271,  276,  308. 
Grosse  la  Bâtarde,  47. 
Griinenberg,  John,  116. 
Gruninger,  John,  of  Strasburg,  33g. 
Gruuthuise,  Louis  de  la,  283. 
Guadagnino,  John  Andrea,  112. 
Guiffrey,  J.  J.,  296. 
Guise,  Henri  de,  288. 
Guldinbeck,  Berth.,  of  Rome,  339. 
Gutenberg,  John,  2,  15,  17.  54,  255. 
Gutenberg's  Bible,  22,  23. 
Guy  Jouvenal,  106. 

Hacliette,  L.,  publisher  at  Paris,  243. 

Hagenbach,  Peter,  44. 

Hahn,  Ulrich,  44,  63. 

Main's  Repertorium,  325. 

Hakluyt's  Principall  Navigations,  1 20. 

Halles  Chronicle,  iig. 

Harding,  S.  and  E.,  220. 

Hardouin,  Gilles,  97. 

Harleian  Collection,  318. 

Heilmann,  Andrew,  16. 

Heinecken,  bibhographer,  34g. 

Heinlein,  John,  56,  ;8,  61. 

Henri  II.,  280,  286,  30g. 

Henri  III.,  158,  288,  290. 

Henri  IV.,  162,  163,  292,  310,  314. 

Heures  à  l'Usage  de  Rome,  Bvo,  1488,  86. 

Hiérat,  Antoine,  168. 

Wxgàen's  Polychronicon,  1527,  121. 

Histoire  du  Cosiume,  by  Moreau,  211. 

Historical  notices,  351. 

Hoernen,  Arnold  Ther,  44,  73. 

Hogarth,  'William,  219. 

Holbein's  Dance  0/  Death,  140. 


GESEKAI.    IXDKX. 


379- 


Holbein,  Hans,  75,  100. 

Holinshed's  Chronicles,  118. 

HoU,  Linhard,  of  Ulm,  33S. 

Hollar,  \V.,  192. 

Hortiis  Dclkianim,  169. 

Houbrakeii,  219. 

Houdard  de  la  Motte,  196. 

Hiilsius,  192. 

Hussner,  George,  of  Strasburg.  339. 

Hyginus'  Pocticon  Astronomicutii,  65. 

lamblicluis,  the,  of  the  Libri  collection,  S76. 

Illustrated  London  Xcivs,  236. 

Image  makers,  5. 

Imposition  of  pages,  255. 

Imprimerie  Nationale,  138. 

Incunabula,  8,  321. 

Isaac,  Jasper,  164,  166. 

Isenburg,  Diether  von,  36. 

Jackson,  J.,  engraver,  244. 

Jacob,  bibliophile,  238. 

Jenson,  Nicolas,  54,  65,  66,  113,  252,  261. 

Johannot,  the  brothers,  237. 

Johannot,  Tonj-,  225. 

Joly,  Marc  Antoine,  199. 

Jombert,  printer,  201. 

Juda,  Leon  de,  139. 

Juif,  Gerard,  150. 

Junius,  Hadrian,  8,  9,  15. 

Juste,  François,  125. 

Kalthoeber,  C,  binder,  304. 

Kaulbach,  W.  von,  248. 

Kempis,  Thomas  à.  De  Iinilalione,  b}-  J .  and 

D.  Elzevir,  172. 
Kerver,  Jacques,  139. 

,,       Thielman,  96,  122. 
Koberger,  Antony,  44,  74. 
Koelhof,  first  printer  to  use  signatures,  44. 
Koenig,  Fr.,  inventor  of  steam  press,  257. 
Krantz,  Martin,  57,  60. 
Kyngston,  John,  119. 

Labarre,  Jean  de,  308. 
Lacroix,  Paul,  238. 
Laferté,  binder,  302. 
Lafontaine,  Les  Contes,  207. 
Lahure,  printer,  Paris,  244. 


Lallemant,  Jean,  272,  280. 

hangland's  Pierce  Plowman,  1530,  118. 

Langlois,  François,  176. 

Lanvveryn,  Mark,  273. 

Lascaris'  Greek  Grammar,  1494,  109. 

La  Tour,  binder,  296. 

Le  Bon,  Jean,  308. 

Le  Brun,  painter,  184. 

Le  Challeux,  Jacques,  153. 

Le  Fevre,  Malheurs  de  Troye,  81. 

Le  Gascon,  binder,  292,  294. 

Le  Maire's,  Jean,  Illustrations  de  la  Gaule, 

122. 
Le  Rouge's  La  Mer  des  Histoires,  84. 
Le  Roy,  Adrien,  152. 
Le  Royer,  Jean,  149. 
Lebé,  Guillaume,  156,  254. 
Leclerc,  Sebastien,  185. 
Leech,  John,  246. 
Lemonnier,  binder,  302. 
Lenoir,  Philippe,  284. 
Lenox  Library,  320. 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  1 13. 
Léonord,  196. 
Lepautre,  engraver,  187. 
Leroy,  Guillaume,  106. 
Lesné,  binder,  303. 
Letters  of  indulgence,  20. 
Lettou,  John,  51. 
Levasseur,  binder,  296. 
Leu,  Thomas  de,  157,  163. 
Lewis,  Charles,  binder,  304. 
Leyden  Library,  316. 
Libraries,  307. 
Linschoten,  192. 
Lipsius,  Justus,  155. 

Livre  de  Perspective,  by  Jean  Cousin,  148. 
Livre  de  Portraiture,  by  Jean  Cousin,   149,. 

151. 
Loggan,  David,  317. 
Lorenzo,  Nicholas  di,  67. 
Lorris,  Guillaume  de,  106. 
Lortic,  binder,  303. 
Loslein,  Peter,  44. 
Louis  XL,  54,  123. 
Louis  XII.,  108,  123,  268,  282. 
Louis  XIII.,  169,  175,  163,  165,  292. 
Louis  XIV.,  162,  182,  296,  298. 
Louis  XV.,  209,  226,  314. 


?8o 


General  Ixdex. 


Louis  XV'L,  209,  227. 
Louis  XVIII.,  227. 
Louisa  of  Lorraine,  290. 
Louvre  editions,  231. 
Luther,  Martin,  21. 
Lutzelburger,  Hans,  141. 

Macault,  Antoine,  134. 

Mace  at  Caen,  155. 

Machlinia,  William,  51. 

Magasin  Pittoresque,  236. 

Mainyal,  George,  62. 

Maioli,  Thomas,  272,  308. 

Majuscules,  337. 

Manipulus  Ciiratoniin,  61. 

Mansfeldt,  Count,  288. 

Mansion,  Colard,  printer  at  Bruges,  46,  Si, 

253- 
Manutius,  Aldus,  66,  108,  113,  252,  271. 
Marchants,  Guyot,   Datice  of  Death,    1485, 

101,  284. 
Marius-Michell,  binder,  303. 
Marnef,  Geoffroy  de,  122. 

,,        Jeanne  de,  140. 
Martyr's,  Peter,  Decades  of  the  New  World, 

120. 
Master,  the,  à  la  Navette,  81. 
Matthews,  binder,  303. 
Matthias  van  der  Goes,  82. 
Mayer,  Henry,  62. 
Mazarin,  Due  de,  311. 
Mazarine  Library,  311. 
Mearne,  Samuel,  binder,  304. 
Medemblick,  John,  of  Cologne,  338. 
Medici,  Marie  de,  162. 
„        Catherine  de,  310. 
,,        Cosmo  de,  319. 
Meissonier,  240. 
Mellan,  Claude,  166. 
Mentelin,  John,  of  Strasburg,  339. 
Menzel,  Adolph,  248. 
Mer,  la,  des  Histoires,  1488,  84,  122. 
Merian,  engraver,  316. 
Merlus,  binder,  296. 
Meslier,  Denis,  98. 
Meteren,  Van,  118. 
Method  of  collecting  books,  the,  352. 
Metlinger  at  Dijon,  62.' 
Miegen,  168. 


Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  193. 

Miniatures,  345. 

Minuscules,  337. 

Mirror  makers,  16. 

Misprints,  330. 

Missale  Herbipolense,  1479,  81 

Molière  Œuvres,  by  Prault,  199. 

Montenay's,      Georgette      de.      Emblèmes, 

151. 
Monteregio,  John  de,  Caleudario,  65. 
Montmorency,  Anne  de,  287. 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  118. 
Moreau,  the  younger,  204,  209. 
Moretus,  Jean,  157. 
Mosaic  binding,  299. 
Mospach,  Josse  Ott  von.  20. 
Movable  type,  9. 
Moxon,  publisher,  254. 
MxxssËUS  Hero  and  Leande?;  1494,  108. 
Muther's  Deutsche  Buchcrillustration,  342. 
Mystère  de  la  Passion,  96. 

Napoleonic  era,  234. 

National  Library,  Florence,  319. 

„  ,,         Paris,  316. 

Nautonnier,  Guillaume  de,  167. 
Necker,  Jost,  114. 
Nemeitz,  312. 
Nesle,  Marquis  de,  2S8. 
Neumeister,  John,  44,  62. 
Nevers,  Due  de,  153,  311. 
Nicholas  V.,  Pope,  20. 
Nivelle,  Michel,  169,  174. 
Norton,  John,  binder,  304. 
Notary,  Julian,  53. 
Number  of  lines  in  a  page,  336. 
Nuremberg  Chronicle,  77,  331. 


Olivier  de  la  Marche,  82. 
Os,  Peter  van,  81. 
Oswen,  John,  121. 
Ovid's       Metamorphoses, 
Leclerc,  187. 


by      Sebastien 


Pacioli,   Fra   Luca,  Dc  Divina  Proporlione, 

II3- 
Pagination,  333. 
Palmart,  Lambert,  46. 
Panel-stamps,  265. 


Gexeral  I.xdex. 


3SI 


Paunartz  and  Sweynheim,  printers  at  Rome, 

44- 
Panzer,  .Innalen,  325. 
Paper-making,  259. 
Papillon,  Jean,  222. 

,,  Jean  Baptiste,  222. 

Paris,  ]ean  de,  S3. 

„       Libraries,  315. 

,,       Missal,  the,  97. 
Pasdeloup,  binder,  300. 
Pasquier-Bonhomme,  83. 
Pass,  Crispin,  169. 
Passe-Partout,  the,  158. 
Passioiialc  Cliristi,  of  Lucas  Cranach,  115. 
Pasti,  Matteo,  64. 

Pastissicr  François,  by  the  Elzevirs,  172. 
Pâtisson,  Mamert,  1 51. 
Paulin,  publisher,  238. 
Payne,  Roger,  binder,  304. 
Perréal,  Jean,  83,  133. 
Perrissin,  Jean,  152. 
Peter  of  Cremona's  Daiiic,  1491,  70. 
Peter  van  Os,  81. 
Petit,  Jean,  122,  127. 
Petrarch's  IVorks,  1 501,  109. 
Pfennigthurm,  the,  of  Strasburg,  16. 
Pfinzing.  Melchior,  114. 
Pfister,  Albert,  34,  37,  62,  339. 
Philippe  IL,  155. 
Philippe,  Laurent,  99. 
Philippe  le  Noir,  122. 
"  Phiz"  (H.  K.  Browne),  245. 
Pliotography     as     means     of     illustration, 

243- 
Picart,  Bernard,  190. 

Jean,  168. 
Piccini,  J.,  168. 
Pico  de  la  Mirandola,  loS. 
Pictor,  Bernard,  44. 

,,        Loslein  and  Ratdolt,  65. 
Pigorreau,  gilder,  292. 
Pigouchet,  Philippe,  83,  85. 
Plantin,  Christopher,  Ii5,  154,  253. 
Platen,  the,  of  the  press,  257. 
Plaj-ing  cards,  5. 
Pleydenu-urff,  William,  75. 
VluxmeXs  lilancge  Royal,  169. 
Poliphili's  Hypiicrotomachia,  70. 
Pollajuolo,  68. 


Polyglot  Bible  by  C.  PlaiUin,  i  56. 

,,      by  Vitré,   181. 
Pompadour,  M.  de,  202,  288. 
Ponte,  Gotardo  de,  113. 
Portese,  Agostino  da,  112. 
Portrait,  the,  in  the  book,  104. 
Pou-ell,  Humphrey,  lig. 
Pratt,  binder,  303. 
Preller,  Fried,  246,  248. 
Price  of  rare  books,  3  50. 
Primaticcio,  143. 
Printer's  ink,  340. 

„        marks,  103,  340. 
Promptuairc  des  Médailles,  146. 
Prud'hon,  230. 
Prynne,  William,  192. 
Prys,  John,  of  Strasburg,  339. 
Psalter,  second  edition  of  1459,  31. 

the,  of  1457,  340,  345. 
Ptolemy's  Cosmograpliia,  1478,  70. 
Punctuation,  337. 
Purchas  :  his  Pilgrimcs,  192. 
Pymont,  Topie  de,  1 50. 
Pynson,  Richard,  52,  116,  118,  253. 

Ouaritch,  Bernard,  bookseller  of  London,  24, 

351- 
Quentel,  Henry,  of  Cologne,  339. 


Raffet,  designer,  241. 
Rahmenschneiders,  the,  82. 
Raoul  le  Fevre,  Histoires  de  Troves,  56. 
Rare  books,  362. 
Ratdolt,  Erhard,  44,  65,  113,  341. 
Rationariiim  Evangel istantm,  14. 
Ravenna,  Peter  of,  112. 
Remade,  Gilles,  97. 
Rembold,  Berthold,  62. 
Renée  of  Ferrara,  137. 
Retzsch,  Moritz,  designer,  246. 
Reyser,  Michael,  of  Eichstadt,  339. 
Richter,  Ludwig,  designer,  247. 
Riviere,  binder,  303. 
Roffet,  Pierre,  284. 
Rogers'  Poems,  244. 
Roman,  Le,  de  la  Rose,  105. 
Rood,  Theodoricus,  first  printer  at  O.xford, 
52- 


382 


General  Ixdex. 


Rossi,  Lorenzo,  St.  Jerome,  1497,  102. 
Rosso,  143. 

Roville,  printer  at  Lyons,  145,  146. 
Rowlandson,  Thomas,  244. 
Royal  Library,  Berlin,  319. 
Paris,  309. 
Royal  Printing  House,  Paris,  165,  175,  225. 
Rubens,  Peter  Paul,  158. 
Rubrics,  345,  347. 
Ruette,  binder,  297. 
Riippel,  Berthold.  44. 

Sadeler,  Jean,  i  58. 

Saint-Aubin,  designer,  203,  209. 

■Saint-Pierre,  Bernardin  de,  234. 

St.  Albans,  Boke  of,  52. 

St.  Christopher,  1423,   xylographie  block,  4, 

349- 
St.Gelais,  Octavian  de,  Le  Vcrglcr  d' Honneur, 

121. 
St.  Jerome,  Letters,  148S,  66. 
Salisbury  Primer,  119. 
Salomon,  Bernard,  145. 
Sanlecquss,  Jacques,  173,  254. 
Sauvai,  294. 
Savary  de  Breves,  181. 
Saxton's  Atlas,  1579,  121. 
Scaliger,  Joseph,  317. 
Scarron's  Works,  177. 
Schaffler,  John,  of  Ulm,  339. 
Schatzbehalter,  the,  1491,  75. 
Schàufelin,  Hans  Leonard,  114. 
Schedel's,      Dr.      Hartmann,      Xuremberg 

Clironhic,  77. 
Schnorr  von  Carolsfeld,  designor,  247. 
Schoeffer,  Peter,   19,  39,  56. 

Ivo,  168. 
Schoepflin,  16. 
Schongauer,  Martin,  14. 
Schonsperger,  Hans,  114. 
Schwind,  Moritz  von,  designer,  246. 
Séguier,  Chancellor,  297. 
Semblancay,  272,  280. 
Seneca  of  Toledo,  15,  10,  116, 
Servetus,  160.  ' 
Sessa,  Melchior,   U2. 
Seyssel,  Claude  de,  122. 
Sforza,  144,  308. 
Shakespeare,  Boydells  edition,  1791,  219. 


Shakespeare,  quarto  edition,  119. 
Sliakespeare's      Works,     by     Jaggard     and 

Blount,  1623,   191. 
Sliip  of  Fools,  79. 

Siberch,  John,  printer  at  Cambridge,  121. 
Sidney's  Arcadia,  1 590,  1 1 8. 
Signatures,  333. 
Signs-manual,  3. 
Singleton,  Hugh,  119. 
Size,  the,  329. 
Sloane,  Sir  Hans, founder  of  Britisli  Museum, 

50. 
Smirke,  Robert,  220,  317. 
Songe  de  PoUphilc,  Le,  140. 
South  Kensington  Museum  Art  Library.  318. 
Spacing,  the,  335. 
Speculum  Hum.  Salvationis,  7,  9. 
Spens&is  FaeHe  Queene,  1590,  118. 
Spiegelmachers,  16. 
Spiess,  Weigand,  34. 
.Spindeler,  Nicolas,  44. 
Spira,  Johannes  de,  44,  339. 

,,      Vendelin  de,  44. 
Stanhope  Press,  the,  257. 
Stationers' Company,  the,  119. 
Stol,  John,  82. 
Stothard,  Thomas,  220,  244. 
Strange,  .Sir  Robert,  219. 
Sturt's  Common  Prayer  Book,  219. 
Sublet  des  Noyers,  175. 
Sutton,  Henry,  119. 
Sweynheim,  Conrad,  printer  at  Rome,  44. 

Tailleurs  d'images,  4. 

Tallemant  des  Reaux,  294. 

Tessier,  binder,  302. 

Ther  Hoernen,   Arnold,    first   printer  using 

Arabic  numerals,  103. 
Tlieuerdanck,  The,  114,  115. 
Thevet,  Cosmograpliic  Universelle,  1 5 1. 
Thompson,  John,  engraver,  235,  244. 
Thou,  Christoplie  de,  281. 

„      Jacques  de,  289,  310. 
Times,  The,  227. 
Title,  the,  327,  330. 
Todtentants,  Tlie,  73. 
Tooling,  gold,  270. 
Topograpliical  index,  366. 
Tomes,  Hans  de,  145. 


Gk.\/:ra/.  Ixdex. 


383 


Torqueinada,  Cardinal,  42,  63. 

Torresani,  Andrea,  66,  loS. 

Tortorel,  Jacques,  152. 

Tory,  Geoffroy,  126,  253,  276,  278,  2S2. 

Trautz-Bauzonnet,  binder,  303. 

Traviès,  designer,  242. 

Tresciiel,  Jean,  103,   140, 

Treves,  Peter  of,   121. 

Tritenheim,  Jolin  of,   ig. 

Tyndall's  English  New  Testament,  llS. 

Type  casting,  251. 

Type,  forms  of,  337. 

Types,  presses,  paper,  250. 

University  Library,  Cambridge,  31S. 

Valadel's  editions,  Petits  Formats,  209. 

V'aldarfer,  Christopher,  44. 

Valla,  Etcgantia  Latina  IJngutT,  61. 

Valladier,  André,  164. 

Valturius,  De  Re  Militari,  64. 

Van  der  Goes,  Matthias,  82. 

Van  Dyck,  Christopher,  254. 

Van  Meteren,  1 1 8. 

Vatican  Library,  319. 

Veldener,  John,  81. 

Vellum,  editions  on,  343,  362. 

Vérard,  Antoine,  82,  92,  284. 

Vergèce,  Ange,  137. 

Verona,  John  of,  64. 

Viator,  Perspective,  284. 

Virgil's  [r'w^'.ç,  by  Aldus  Manutius,  1501,  109. 

Vitré,  Antoine,  166,  180. 

VitrKviits,  by  Cesariano,  113. 

Vocabitlarium  ex  quo,  the,  32. 

Vollehoe,  John  of,  82. 

Voragine's  Golden  Legend,  96,  112. 

Vos,  Martin  de,  1 58. 

Vostre,  Simon,  82,  85,  86,  87,  2S4. 

Vriedman,  John,   150. 

Vyel,  Andrew,  44. 


Walchius'      Dcras 
Hiimani,  36. 


Faludannn       Generis 


Walter,  John,  227. 

Walton's  Complete  Angler,  193. 

^Vater-marks,  259,  34^. 

Watteau,  196. 

Wechel,  printer  at  Paris,  145. 

Wencker,  16. 

Wensler,  Michael,  printer,  62. 

Werner,  Anton  von,  designer,  246. 

West,  Benjamin,  designer,  236. 

Westall,  Richard,  designer,  220. 

Westphalia,  Conrad  of,  46. 

,,  John  of,  printer  at  Louvain,  46, 

81. 
Whitchnrche,  Edward,  119. 
Wierix,  engraver,  157,  164. 
Winterberger,  J.,  printer  of  Vienna,  63. 
Woeriot,  P.,  engraver,  1 28,  151. 
Wohlgemuth,  Michael,  75,  76. 
Wolfenbiillel  Library,  316. 
Works  belonging  to  a  particular  brandi  of 

literature,  339. 
Works  illustrated  with  wood-cuts,  361. 
Works  in  particular  languages,  356. 
Works    of  importance    for  tlie     history    of 

printing,  360. 
Works  of  particular  countries,  357. 
Works  of  particular  periods,  358. 
Works    whose     contents     present    special 

interest,  360. 
Wynkyn  de  Worde,  51,  52,  119. 

Xylographs,  4,  10. 

Zaehnsdorf,  J.,  binder,  303. 

Zainer,  Gunther,  of  Augsburg,  72,  339. 

,,      's    Book    on    Clicss    by    Jacopo    da 
Cessole,  72. 

,,      ;  John,  of  Ulm,  338. 
Zell,  Ulrich,  25,  34,  44. 
Zeninger,  Conr.,  of  Nurnberg,  33g. 
Zenoi,  Domenic,  168. 
Zonta,  L.  (Giunta),  iii. 
Zuckermann,  binder,  304. 
Zum  Jungcn  at  Mayence,  18. 


Printed  by  Hazell,  Watson,  &  Viney,  Ld.,  London  and  Aylesbury. 


I 


University  of  California 
SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
-p,  305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking^Lo*  y^^^^^^^îa 


LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 
Rrtiirn  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


H/'>/ 


0\) 


i 


Series  9482 


UGSOUWEBNntGIONMl 


0     000  334  790     3_ 


